In which Albert Whiskers road-tests a bargain cat scratching pad........

Hi Friends,
Well, you may know that since we adopted Albert Whiskers in Summer last year, the state of our rugs & carpets have taken a distinct turn for the worse & a couple of them are now looking distinctly trampy. I declined to part with £20 for a cat scratching pad which was little more than a piece of cheapo carpet glued onto a twist of metal but the Big Hairy Half of the Relationship then spotted an environmentally sustainable & very affordable option, which Albert Whiskers will be putting through its paces. If it's any good, I'll finally be able to start choosing new rugs.

Well, he's ready & waiting, so here we go. The item being tested is the Catkins Compact Catnip Card Scratcher from Petface, Ltd. Cost £2.99 from the pet department at a local garden centre. I like the sustainability of this. There is no plastic, just cardboard, which can be composted or added to our household recycling collection.  

It's described on the packaging as 'Claw & paw-friendly' & comes 'complete with catnip for extra claw attention'.

The bag of catnip certainly got him off the sofa.

In fact a couple of seconds after this photo, he made a grab for the entire bag & if this hadn't caused me to drop my phone, I'd have had an action shot. 

The lid of the scratcher has a perforated edge for easy removal, & catnip is then sprinkled on top & shaken into the corrugated card folds.

So what did Albert Whiskers think of it?

Well, he......... 

....licked it, 

....leaned on it,

....played with it,

.....got stoned on it,

....sat on it,

......& posed on it (while slightly ripped to the whiskers).....but did he sharpen his claws on it? 

No, he did not! The only time those claws made direct contact lasted for about 5 seconds & that was only so he could spend the next 10 mins inhaling catnip off his paws. 

The next morning, I presented him with the scratcher again. He ran straight up to it.......then stopped approx. 2 cms away & PROCEEDED TO STROP HIS CLAWS ON THE RUG with even more gusto than usual. Aaaaggghhh!!  So the results of Albert Whiskers' testing of the Catkins Compact Catnip Cat Scratcher? As yet, we have seen no evidence of him using this product as a scratching pad. He has certainly had fun with it, but not in the way we hoped would save our rugs from further destruction. We will persevere, but if it doesn't happen, will need to accept that we may just have spent £2.99 on a big card bong.

Until next time,

C x