You guys, I’ve been having a really hard time with Ted. Well, just his scratching (and his eye boogers, but that’s a separate story). See, I’ve trained Ralph to scratch STRICTLY on the scratching “things,” but Ted has been a little tougher. Ralph will do ANYTHING if I tell him he’s a good boy. He’s like a dog. And he’s looking for my constant love and attention. The second I walk in the door, he runs over to a cat scratcher and starts scratching while staring at me. He knows. Ted…not so much. And he’s tricky. He’ll just put his nails on the couch and when I “say” something, he changes it into a stretch. And then he looks at me like “What? I’m not allowed to stretch either? Geez.”
His most favoritest scratching area is our stereo speaker. I tried everything. First I sprayed it with citrus spray (cats hate citrus I guess). Then I tried putting a towel over it, but it just made him super curious about the towel and then he got up there, starting winging around and knocked the speaker over. Then we put a big foam roller in front of it, but I think he thought it was just a game - “Find the Scratcher.” And he’ll just scratch away while I’m clapping and “NO!”-ing my face off. He looks at me like “Oh, I get it. Ralph’s a good boy, but I’m not! EVERYBODY HATES THE GINGER!” And it’s not like he’s in want of a place to scratch. Granted, they’re all the cardboard kind (this and this), but we’re knee-deep in scratchers. But I REFUSE to buy a carpeted cat tree. Re. Fuze. SO, I came up with a brilliant idea that Ryan was able to execute (duh):
“We” (my idea, Ryan’s elbow grease - I think I deserve a modicum of credit) glued some scraps of Flor carpeting we had left over from the cat shelves onto a piece of plywood and screwed it into the wall…voila. And he LOVES IT!! He can stretch out and scratch. And I think the “GOOD BOY!” thing is working because he has taken to scratching and then staring at me. And he’s stopped scratching the speaker. For now. We’ll see. Regardless, it’s pretty!!! See, that’s all I care about.
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