The Day We Set Up the SmartCat Ultimate Scratching Post

The old scratching post had been in the front living room for years, and by January it was a bald strip of carpet wrapped around a core that rocked when you touched it. June had worn it bare. She is three years old, about eight pounds, and she scratches anything that stands still long enough.

I am not going to pretend this was a mystery. June had one post, it was short, and it moved. The arm of the sofa does not move. So she used the arm of the sofa, and I spent most of December saying her name in a tired voice and getting nothing back for it.

Biscuit is nine and about fourteen pounds, and he does not scratch much anymore. He likes to lie flat on something solid and take his time getting up off it. Whatever replaced the old post had to be steady enough for him to lean his whole weight against and tall enough for June to stretch out to her full length.

I read the listings the way I read everything, which is out loud and with a tape measure nearby. In January I ordered the SmartCat scratching post, the 32 inch tower. The listing says sisal fiber, a 16 by 16 inch base, 13.5 pounds, floor mount, indoor use, and assembly with two screws and two dowels.

Ray put it together at the kitchen table while the coffee went cold. Two screws, two dowels, and he was done in a few minutes. He is the one who drills in this house. I am the one who reads the sheet, holds the level and tells him when it is off by a hair.

It is a plain post on a square base and it does not look like much of anything. That was fine with me. The old one had been an eyesore and the cats did not care about it, so looks were never going to be the deciding factor.

June had one post, it was short, and it moved. The sofa arm does not move. That was the entire problem.

We set the SmartCat at the end of the sofa, on the wood floor, in the same corner where the old one had been. I did not rearrange the room or move the couch to make a statement. Ray drove the two screws, I checked the base with the level, and then we did the hardest part, which was leaving it alone so the cats could decide for themselves.

June found the SmartCat post that same afternoon. She went up on her back legs, hooked the sisal and pulled the way she pulls, with her whole body behind it. The post did not rock. She came back to it a few minutes later and then again that evening, and in our house she has scratched it every day since.

The sofa arm took longer. She still went for it now and then through February, and I would like to tell you I did something clever about that. I did not. There was simply something better in the same room, and she is a cat who will take the better offer when one is sitting there. By the end of that month she had mostly quit the arm. That is our house. I cannot tell you what your cat will do.

Biscuit uses it his own way. Most mornings he walks over, hooks his front claws high up the post and stretches his whole length, front paws up and back dipped, then he lets go and walks off to his bowl. It takes about four seconds. He has never tipped it. Thirteen and a half pounds on a 16 by 16 inch base on a wood floor, and it has not gone over once since January.

It is worth being plain about what this is. There is no perch, no ledge, no cubby, nothing to climb onto. It is a post, and that is all it is. June gets her height from other things in this house. If your cat wants somewhere to sit up high, this is not that purchase.

The listing says hand wash only, so nothing has gone into the machine. I run the vacuum over the base and give the sisal a light pass, and that is the whole of the upkeep. It has held its shape better than I expected, and the sisal has fuzzed a little where June works it but has not frayed.

What I'd Tell You If We Were Sitting at My Kitchen Table

I would tell you that most of the scratching trouble in this house came down to the furniture, not the cat. A post that slides when a cat leans on it, or one that is shorter than the cat is long, is not much of an offer. If you are going to buy one thing, buy the tallest post you can stand to look at and put it where the cat already scratches, not in a back bedroom where it is out of your way.

And I would tell you it is one purchase, not a cure. June still goes at the corner of the hall rug when the mood takes her. She is a cat and I am not a behaviorist, so I am not going to promise you a fix. What I can tell you is that the SmartCat post has stood in the same spot since January without moving, both cats use it in their own way, and the arm of my sofa has stopped being a scratching post.