Do cats ruin your furniture, doors and kitchen cabinets?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I have 3 cats they never scratched my leather coach

1. Provide scratches post in every room. tickle and horizontal scratches pad or post.

2. There are cat detergent sprays that you spray on the furnitures you do not want cats to scratch. Do this right before you bring cat in to your house. Now cat will only attracted yo the cat scratch post. Keep spraying for the first few months. After that, I found that my cats don’t touch anything else without keep the spraying.

3 for odor, it’s on the owner. I have litter robot 4 self cleaning litter box. And two more regular cover litter boxes.( total of 3 cats) . My house doesn’t smell. ( per my guest and my nanny)

4 never declaw cat. It.p can cause other problem such as peeing all over your house etc. scratching is natural for cat. Between its toes , there are pheromone gland that they spread to mark their territory. Imagine if they can’t mark it with scratching, they will mark with pee instead ! Peeing around is worse, way way worse for me.

lol lol like your guests and your PAID nanny are going to tell you your house STINKS. Come on.

[Anonymous]

If you have pets expect some damage. It’s the nature of having an animal in the house. Our Pekingese dog had a favorite place to scratch up the carpet and them sleep in that spot. When I sold the house I had to give a carpet credit for that room. Keeping her nails short and buying her a scratching mat didn’t help.

[Anonymous]

Yes, we rescued two cats from Petsmart and those two totally destroyed everything but once damages are done, it's no big deal. They are both gone now after 16 years and we still miss them terribly.

[Anonymous]

Some cats are destructive. Others are less so. It really depends on the cat. My cats claw my couch despite many MANY other scratch post offerings. I don’t mind that much as I got it for free but it’s a reason I refuse to pay money to replace it. My sister’s cat will steal any food you turn your back on for five seconds but leaves her furniture alone. A friend ended up adopting kittens when she already had a grown cat and for a year long adjustment period they pooped outside the litter box and peed in corners. It was really bad. She now has five robotic litter boxes and calming pheromone diffusers. Her house actually doesn’t smell noticeably of cat as they cleans regularly (especially the litter boxes) and also have a dog.

So I don’t think OP should get a cat unless (a) her DH who wants it is ready to be on litter box duty all the time and (b) she can make peace with her idea of a perfect home being constantly dirtied/destroyed/upset.

[Anonymous]

Yes, yes they do.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Remove their front claws and you won’t have any issues.

Absolutely not. This is illegal in many places because it’s so cruel. Don’t do it.

[Anonymous]

Op here. You have convinced me not to get the cat 😆 I just finished a nurse shift and came home to a messy house.

[Anonymous]

I've had cats my whole life. The one I have now is quite happy to scratch on his scratching posts and has not ever ruined anything. Some of my previous cats shredded furniture (my last one scratched at one particular end of the couch), and never showed any interest in the various scratching posts I got them, even if I put catnip on there, etc.

The shouldn't ruin your doors and furniture though, lol. Only a big dog with separation anxiety is going to do that.

Adding my voice to the chorus here with this: Please do not declaw a cat. It is most definitely cruel.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Op here. You have convinced me not to get the cat 😆 I just finished a nurse shift and came home to a messy house.

Glad we could help lol. I love my cats but it really doesn’t sound like a great fit in your situation. Tell your husband he should volunteer at the local animal shelter to get his kitten fix.

[Anonymous]

I've had many cats throughout my life and none were destructive. One of them started to claw the couch, but I got those big stickers designed to go on furniture to prevent clawing. I figured out what kind of scratcher he liked best and after a couple I took the adhesive sheets off the couch and he's never bothered them again.

[Anonymous]

I had a cat growing up and a couple in college and beyond, but when they were gone I decided no more cats and that was twenty years ago.

I don’t believe in mutilating them by declawing, but left intact they scratched and ruined furniture, woodwork, curtains, clothes, linens, etc. They tracked litter everywhere and they can jump higher than you would think so you have to assume they’ve walked on all the surfaces in your house at some point spreading nasty stuff off their little scratched filthy paws. If they like to scratch or bite in play, you can get cat scratch fever and a bad blood infection. They puke up hairballs everywhere. They run around and knock things over and generally causes disturbances while playing at night because they are nocturnal. If you close them out of a room at night, they might spend the whole night meowing and scratching at the door so you still don’t get good sleep.

I did all the things you are supposed to do - cans full of pennies, spray bottle with water, etc. They are not really trainable in my experience, so none of the above behaviors can really be curbed very well.

A dog would be better; if that doesn’t fit your lifestyle, maybe some hamsters in a cool Habitrail habitat.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Yes, yes they do.

Cries in agreement.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I had a cat growing up and a couple in college and beyond, but when they were gone I decided no more cats and that was twenty years ago.

I don’t believe in mutilating them by declawing, but left intact they scratched and ruined furniture, woodwork, curtains, clothes, linens, etc. They tracked litter everywhere and they can jump higher than you would think so you have to assume they’ve walked on all the surfaces in your house at some point spreading nasty stuff off their little scratched filthy paws. If they like to scratch or bite in play, you can get cat scratch fever and a bad blood infection. They puke up hairballs everywhere. They run around and knock things over and generally causes disturbances while playing at night because they are nocturnal. If you close them out of a room at night, they might spend the whole night meowing and scratching at the door so you still don’t get good sleep.

I did all the things you are supposed to do - cans full of pennies, spray bottle with water, etc. They are not really trainable in my experience, so none of the above behaviors can really be curbed very well.

A dog would be better; if that doesn’t fit your lifestyle, maybe some hamsters in a cool Habitrail habitat.

Pocket pets can be destructive too and they need outside time. If they are rodents they will eat wood and destroy carpets. The bedding stinks like cat litter even if you change it frequently

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Remove their front claws and you won’t have any issues.

Do not do this, it is very cruel and painful to the cat.

?

My parents had the vet do this and their cat lived a very happy and long life (nearly 20 years) as a spoiled indoor cat. I’m sure the vet did something to mitigate any pain.

Declawing cats is far less common nowadays and is commonly considered cruel. There can be nasty complications from the procedure and cats can’t climb as well and can’t defend themselves very well.

Are vets even willing to do it routinely anymore?

Fwiw, it was a kitten they rescued. It was 20+ years ago. But the kitten didn’t seem to suffer or have any adverse effects.

I can’t imagine dealing with the damage of a cat with claws.

When you know better, you do better. Now we know that declawing cats is the same as cutting our fingers off to the first knuckle. I cringe every time someone mentions declawing.

[Anonymous]

I trim his claws myself so he can't do too much damage. Furniture is fine but he loves to rip up looped type rugs.
Litter box is in the basement and cleaned daily.
Dogs are 1000x messier and more destructive. I babysat my friends dog and she chewed up the baseboards while we were sleeping.