Daily Cat Lesson #7: I am NOT a Scratching Post!

🐾 Daily Cat Lesson #7: I am NOT a Scratching Post!

There are scratching posts.
There are cat trees.
There is furniture.
And yet somehow - my leg was selected.

• 🐾 Why do cats scratch?
  Scratching isn't just about sharpening claws. It helps cats shed the old outer layers of their claws, stretch their paws, legs and back, and exercise the muscles involved in extending and retracting their claws.
• 🐾 Cats also leave a message when they scratch.
  Cats have scent glands in their paws. Scratching leaves both a visible mark and a scent signal. In Cat, it's basically: "I was here. This is part of my territory."
• 🐾 Why does my cat scratch ME?
  Your leg may simply be in exactly the right place and the right time for a stretch and scratch. And because you're familiar and smell like home, scratching around you can also be part of the cat's normal comfortable territorial behavior.
  It doesn't necessarily mean he's angry with you.
  Although this information is considerably more comforting to the cat than it is to your leg.
• 🐾 What should you do?
  Don't punish normal scratching behavior. Give your cat something better to scratch: a sturdy scratching post tall enough for a full-body stretch, plus horizontal scratchers if your cat prefers them.
  Put them where the cat actually likes to scratch, not where they look best with the furniture. Cats have strong opinions about interior design.

And if your leg is still selected...
Congratulations. You may officially be part of the territory. 😹

🐈📸 Sphynx Cat Pelmen - a friend of TopTropicals PeopleCats.Garden.

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