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Conference misery::feline

Title:	Meower Power - Where Differing Opinions are Respected
Notice:	purrrrr...
Moderator:	JULIET::CORDES_JA

Created:	Wed Nov 13 1991
Last Modified:	Fri Jun 06 1997
Last Successful Update:	Fri Jun 06 1997
Number of topics:	1079
Total number of notes:	28858

808.0. "Save my Rugs" by AKOCOA::SKENNEY () Mon Oct 03 1994 15:18

    Please move this entry if it is posted in the wrong place.
    
    I'm looking for advice on how to prevent my cat, Molly, from clawing my
    new rugs.
    
    She has apparently decided that I bought her two giant scratch pads and
    is now disdaining her former scratch pad, an old rug.  (She has
    never used the commercial scratching posts, even the sissel rope 
    scratcher, which I'm told most cats like).
    
    So...first I tried the 'no' word.  She doesn't like that word.  (And
    from her point of view, what's the difference between an old rug and
    new rug?  I'm sure she didn't get it and found me annoying).    
    
    Then I put catnip on her old rug.  She rubbed in that, but still
    scratched the new rugs.
    
    Then I bought Hertz pet rug repellant.  I sprayed it on a rag and
    put it on the new rug.  Although I found the smell repelling, Molly 
    didn't and thought I had brought her yet another toy!
    
    This morning I covered the rugs with sheets to protect them while I'm
    at work and Molly's at play at home!
    
    Is there any other solution? Any way to save my rugs?  
    
    Thanks
    
    PS. Although she's an indoor cat, I won't get her declawed.

T.R	Title	User	Personal Name	Date	Lines
808.1		USCTR1::MERRITT_S	Kitty City	`Tue Oct 04 1994 05:49`	12
	If there is only certain areas of your new rug she's scratching, try putting aluminum foil over that particular area or double stick tape (tape one side to a cardboard and let the other sticky side remain up). If it's your whole rug she is doing this with...I'd start NOT allowing her in that room when your not home and when you are home continue to say no...and zap her with a cold water spray. Good luck... Sandy
808.2		JULIET::CORDES_JA	Four Tigers on my Couch	`Tue Oct 04 1994 10:34`	13
	Try using double sided carpet tape on the rugs for a while until she is deterred. I just bought some to use on my couches. Onyx destroyed one side of the couch in the old apartment before I found out about this option. Now, the way the furniture is place in the new place it leaves two new arms exposed (2 couches) and the one he's actually worked on is pretty much out of view. Oh, now for the good news...he's back to spraying again. Don't think the thought hasn't crossed my mind to double stick a certain part of his anatomy...oh well, back to the Ovaban. I gotta go get that little green machine. Jan
808.3	I bought the toy w/the scratchy in the center	PSYLO::AIKEY		`Thu Oct 06 1994 06:22`	20
	Hi, What I bought was one of those cat toys that has the plastic ball in the center that just goes round and round when the kitties bat it.. In the center of this is a scratch pad.. Made of some kind of cardboard. I really bought the toy for them as a toy, but they just LOVE to using the scratchy... Since I have had it I have had to buy the replacements that go in the center.. They use it all of the time, especially if they can not have their own way... I never thought that it would be used, but it is saving my rugs and furniture.... I bought this gizmo at Caldor's..... Goood Luck!! *joyce
808.4	Surrender	AKOCOA::SKENNEY		`Mon Oct 10 1994 15:06`	11
	Thanks for all the suggestions. I tried everything, but nothing worked! Molly learned the meaning of "Molly's rug" but can't learn (won't learn?) why she can scratch that rug but not the new rugs. So this weekend I surrendered. I covered one rug with clear plastic and I roll up the other rug when I'm not home. So... my place doesn't look like 'Better Homes and Gardens' but such are the compromises when you have a cat!
808.5		SUBURB::ODONNELLJ	Julie O'Donnell	`Wed Oct 12 1994 02:05`	9
	Susan, I sympathise wholeheartedly! My place looks like a bomb's hit it at the best of times. Jim's favourite is to watch me carefully washing the kitchen floor, getting all the muddy paw-prints off, then he walks all over it and I MEAN all over it. Every little corner gets visited to make sure I've done the job properly. I often wonder why I bother.