Off that Couch, Cat!

My first Cat-Post is on a topic that every cat owner will be intimately familiar with: How the hell do you stop the damn cat from destroying your furniture?!?!

Let's first get into why cats scratch... well, everything. When a cat scratches furniture, what is actually happening is that they are sharpening their claws. It is a very natural and instinctual act for them. Territory marking is also part of what drives them to do it. Bottom line is: you're not going to be able to change their natural behaviour. If you have a cat (or cats), it WILL gradually shred up your furniture. On the bright side, it's only superficial damage most of the time. On the not so bright side, it's not very nice looking to us very visually driven homo sapiens.

There are certain tips and tricks to working around this (what we call destructive) behaviour. You can use deterrents, practice training your cat, provide them with better alternatives, put covers over your furniture, attach a thick, protective material to those areas of your furniture that frequently gets scratched, put caps on your cat's claws, and so on and so forth (lots of useful and creative ideas in the links at the end!)

What I do, is ignore what my furniture looks like. I learned a long time ago to make peace with not being able to have anything nice. With 15 plus cats as permanent house guests, there isn't much of an alternative. I find that often my cats prefer to sharpen their claws outside on trees, roots and grass, though they will still give my bed and couch some attention (with their claws). I have never had much of an attachment to aesthetics - I don't mind if my furniture gets scratched up. I want my cats to be happy, comfortable and confident in our shared home.

Finally, an extreme measure that some people choose to take is to declaw their cats (have the claws surgically removed). Due to the design of the cat's paw this requires that the actual tip of the bone on the toe is cut off, as the claw grows out from that bone. Many vets choose to take the expedient route and simply cut half the toe off, leaving a cat that is disfigured for life, unable to walk properly as they have lost important parts of their paws. At the end of the day, declawing is an extreme measure that does not take the health and happiness of the cat into consideration - it is done purely for the human owner. There are far better alternatives available that allow the cat to live a full and happy life. Once again - the bottom line is that cats are who they are and will do what their instincts drive them to do - if we as their caretakers are unable to live with those things, then it is best we not impose our opinions onto them. Fish are a good alternative - no chance of them messing up any furniture.

Here is a list of links with useful information:

https://www.drsfostersmith.com/pic/article.cfm?articleid=666
http://www.catscratching.com/
https://za.pinterest.com/explore/cat-scratch-furniture/?lp=true - some awesome DIY ideas here to protect your furniture
https://www.petmd.com/cat/slideshows/how-cat-proof-your-couch
https://www.thespruce.com/top-reasons-not-to-declaw-a-cat-554740

See my original post here: https://www.patreon.com/posts/off-that-couch-16711744