Cat scratching in wrong places

Happy Tuesday everyone! Tuesday is behavioral issues day and I am sure everyone has had to deal with cats scratching furniture and door frames. I am completely against declawing and I would hope you all agree. For those that may not know, it is the equivalent of cutting off the first joint of your finger.

We have cat scratching posts everwhere and David stapled carpet to the door frames ( a little late though 🙁 ). I try to sprinkle catnip on that stuff often to encourage them, but a few still prefer a chair or a rug.  We each have a spray bottle to spray the kitties when needed, but that doesn’t really work. That makes them not to bad things in front of us, but they still do it when we are not in the room.

Fortunately, I read a book by The Cat Whisperer ( Mieshelle Nagelschneider). In it, she explains that the squirt of water or an air horn needs to happen right when they start the bad behavior and your kitty can’t see you do it. By doing that, the cat will associate the behavior with the squirt or loud sound and be afraid to do the behavior. This does seem to help, but it is really hard to do without your kitty knowing you are responsible ( they are smart little critters). I am thinking of getting a wireless doorbell that way the sound won’t come from my direction- I will let you know how that goes in a future issue.

The Summer edition of the newsletter will be sent to your email on 6/21- if you haven’t signed up yet, please do. I will be drawing a name from the list and will post the winner in the newsletter. The prize is a surprise.