We currently have three couches, they were all acquired second hand and are all sporting a bit of damage from the cats. One of them is stained because it was outside on a verandah for 3 months when we lived in a shoebox posing as a house.
Anyway, we have decided to finally do away with them - I think at least two of them will make good couches for a student share house somewhere. The first problem is that we need to divert to cats away from scratching couches to something more acceptable.
Enter: the delux kitty tower.
I have been meaning to build them one of these for ages, but I never got around to it. N was in a spending mood when we were at the pet shop, so we settled on this tower as it was the most stable of them all. Mittens has voluntarily jumped onto it and settled down on it, but Frou only went on it when I put her there. Neither has had a scratch at it yet.
The woman at the pet shop suggested that when we get our new couch we can use a repellent type spray to discourage the kitties. I was wondering, is there an attractant type spray we can put on the tower to draw them to it?
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genjiscorner · 684 weeks ago
jetsagenda 82p · 684 weeks ago
Caron · 684 weeks ago
houndstooth4 82p · 684 weeks ago
Greyhounds CAN Sit · 684 weeks ago
Honey the Great Dane · 684 weeks ago
I think the problem with any post is more one of position. For example, Muesli does scratch her own post from time to time - but our dining chairs are more conveniently placed in the middle of the room and she passes them more often - whereas her scratching post is in a far corner of the living room...so despite my constant efforts, she still prefers to scratch our dining chairs. If I catch her and tell her off, she'll stop - but there's all the times when I'm out and of course, all through the night! ;-)
Unfortunately, I think once they've started an item of furniture, it'll be hard to dissuade them. But maybe if you make the new sofa unattractive from the beginning, that will help. I've heard that double-sided tape is very effective - you could try sticking that in areas the cats are likely to scratch - at least for the first couple of weeks - which might dissuade them. I used that very successfully when I was training Muesli to stay off the kitchen counters & dining table - which, by the way, she does follow to the letter. So it's not true that cat's can't be trained! :-)
Hsin-Yi
Declan Greyhound 76p · 684 weeks ago
bringingupbella 58p · 684 weeks ago
(Pretty cats, too. :)