Cat vs chair! Emergency-lite edition (well ok, time-sensitive edition)
June 16, 2022 1:26 PM Subscribe
Thumbnail: one of my cats is variably bad about scratching upholstery. I do not want that to happen in one particular instance.
Sequence of events:
Pre-history: got cats!
Recent history: Became a therapist and actually kind of got my private practice going a bit. Mostly tele-therapy, sitting in a plastic Ikea chair. It's not the worst chair.
This month: Started thinking about splurging and getting myself the perfect chair as an "I made it" gift-to-self/trophy/actual useful thing. Dithered because the one I found is expensive, finally said "life is short" and bought it. Paid for it yesterday.
Now: I am picking up Herr Chair on Saturday. It is upholstered, unfortunately, in sort of velvety/velour-y stuff. Not forgiving of claw marks, and tempting to scratch. It is also going in a room that Mr. Cat likes.
Mr. Cat scratches some furniture and not other furniture. It's actually hard for me to figure out what gets spared. It is my impression though that once he starts scratching something, that thing is designated as Eligible For Scratching.
How should I head this of??
Sequence of events:
Pre-history: got cats!
Recent history: Became a therapist and actually kind of got my private practice going a bit. Mostly tele-therapy, sitting in a plastic Ikea chair. It's not the worst chair.
This month: Started thinking about splurging and getting myself the perfect chair as an "I made it" gift-to-self/trophy/actual useful thing. Dithered because the one I found is expensive, finally said "life is short" and bought it. Paid for it yesterday.
Now: I am picking up Herr Chair on Saturday. It is upholstered, unfortunately, in sort of velvety/velour-y stuff. Not forgiving of claw marks, and tempting to scratch. It is also going in a room that Mr. Cat likes.
Mr. Cat scratches some furniture and not other furniture. It's actually hard for me to figure out what gets spared. It is my impression though that once he starts scratching something, that thing is designated as Eligible For Scratching.
How should I head this of??
I agree with music for skeletons. Scratching is an instinct, so he'll scratch whether you want him to or not. You want to divert to better spot to scratch. One common mistake is to get a scratching post that is too short/small. If the cat wants to stretch and scratch, and the post is too short, well... the chair will get it.
You can also get temporary anti-scratch stuff, like double-sided tape, to stick on the chair.
My cats' favorite scratcher is actually a wall mounted one that I tied to the bracketing of my sofa with twine, on the side of the sofa they wanted to scratch. That won't work for all furniture (mine only works because it's an industrial style with exposed metal), but I'd think about creative ways to put something better RIGHT in front of the cat's face.
posted by Kutsuwamushi at 2:03 PM on June 16, 2022 [2 favorites]
You can also get temporary anti-scratch stuff, like double-sided tape, to stick on the chair.
My cats' favorite scratcher is actually a wall mounted one that I tied to the bracketing of my sofa with twine, on the side of the sofa they wanted to scratch. That won't work for all furniture (mine only works because it's an industrial style with exposed metal), but I'd think about creative ways to put something better RIGHT in front of the cat's face.
posted by Kutsuwamushi at 2:03 PM on June 16, 2022 [2 favorites]
How to stop your cats from scratching furniture by Your Cat Daddy Jackson Galaxy
posted by kschang at 2:03 PM on June 16, 2022
posted by kschang at 2:03 PM on June 16, 2022
Double sided tape on the arms or whatever other appealing surface will definitely discourage scratching.
posted by wierdo at 2:06 PM on June 16, 2022 [1 favorite]
posted by wierdo at 2:06 PM on June 16, 2022 [1 favorite]
we have a chair that gets a sheet of newsprint on the seat at night to dissuade the cats from sitting on it. my partner also puts clear packing tape on the arms and/or backs of some of our seating furniture - perhaps not a desirable tactic given the velvety fabric you describe.
posted by Lawn Beaver at 3:19 PM on June 16, 2022 [1 favorite]
posted by Lawn Beaver at 3:19 PM on June 16, 2022 [1 favorite]
Response by poster: OK, I think we actually have some of the clear double sided tape but I wonder if there's some cat mind trick where I can put it on a while until Mr. Cat is familiar with the chair as a Non Scratchable Object because I don't really want it on there forever if possible.
posted by less-of-course at 4:44 PM on June 16, 2022
posted by less-of-course at 4:44 PM on June 16, 2022
Most cats do not like scratching velvet, they prefer woven fabric. Fur magnet though.
posted by acidic at 5:33 PM on June 16, 2022
posted by acidic at 5:33 PM on June 16, 2022
My cat likes to scratch my living room couch. We keep it fully covered with old bed sheets when not in use, and that has dissuaded him. Maybe throw a large sheet over it whenever not in use?
posted by sickinthehead at 9:37 AM on June 17, 2022
posted by sickinthehead at 9:37 AM on June 17, 2022
This thread is closed to new comments.
posted by music for skeletons at 1:55 PM on June 16, 2022 [3 favorites]