I guess the biggest fear of all cat parents is to return home one day and find your precious furniture riddled with scratches and tiny holes. Once, I bought an extremely expensive bed and I was just chilling on top of it when I heard “Pluck pluck pluck pluck…” I sat up slowly to try to listen closer but the noise stopped. It started again when I lay back down. “Pluck pluck pluck..stop…pluck pluck pluck pluck.” This time, I sat up quickly and saw Ah Mao digging her nails deeply into the corner of my bed frame and tugging them back out. I shouted for her to stop only for her to quickly deliver a few more damaging scratches before making a “brrruut” sound and running away! What a brat! Ohhh… you can’t imagine the heartache I felt when I saw the damage. This leads me to stress the importance of having a scratching mat for your kitty.

When Ah Mao was around, I didn’t think of buying one. We had cardboard boxes lying around in the house and she would scratch those. However, since there is no designated place for her to do her scratching, she still attacked our furniture like the leather sofa, our headboards or basically anything in plain sight that she could sink her nails into. I thought that was what all cat owners should expect and accept but after Ah Mao passed, I bought a proper scratching mat for Ning as I thought I should do more for her while she is still alive and kicking.The new scratching mat worked wonders. We shifted to a new house and bought a new sofa. At first I had already resigned to fate that she would start filing her nails on the new sofa. Thank goodness she was way more interested in the new mat than the sofa. Not only did it save our sofa, it saved practically every furniture in our house. A good scratching mat can last for quite a while especially if you trim your cat’s nails regularly. We bought ours 2 years ago. As you can see in the picture above, those white and yellow threads are the parts I have mended. That was the sort of damage that she could have delivered to our sofa. But besides the mended areas, the rest of the scratching mat remained rather intact, almost as good as new.

If you do not want your furniture to get destroyed, spend a few dollars and you can save them. One thing to note is that you need to find the correct type of scratching mat that your cat likes. For instance, out of the two types of scratching mats that I bought for Ning, she only liked one. She scratches the flat cloth type daily while she totally ignores the one made out of cardboard. I placed the scratching mat right beside our sofa and she goes there daily to scratch. The scratching mat should also be sturdy. I once bought one which looked like a log. As it didn’t have a base, it was shaky when the cats scratched it. After one try, they completely rejected it.

Where you place the scratching mats is also very important. They should be placed near to the furniture or places that your cat scratches most. For e.g. you can place it right beside your sofa or if it scratches your headboard, put one beside your bed as well. Chances are, it will prefer going to the scratching mat to scratch its hearts out.

Love,
TG