just when i was thinking our cat training wasn’t working, my wonderful cat julius proved me wrong. we’ve been trying to train julius and aj, the two cats who still have their claws, to use the scratching pad rather than the door frame when they feel the urge to scratch. they pretty much destroyed our front door frame, so we put aluminum foil up, which joe read is a deterrent. it’s worked pretty well (there are only a few scratches underneath), but i can’t exactly put aluminum foil on every door frame for the rest of their lives.

this is where the training comes in. we decided to go ahead and give it a shot. i must say, it’s not very popular with the cats. aj is a good sport for the first time, but the second and third tries get him riled up — so much so that he won’t even eat his treats afterward unless i hold him like a baby and feed them to him (he’s pretty cute!). julius balks at the whole thing and refuses to extend his claws, so joe ends up just rubbing his pads against the cardboard. he’s so difficult sometimes.

but today, i was sitting on the couch scrapbooking when i heard a scraping noise. i looked up and saw julius scratching on the scratching pad. i must say, i was so shocked, it took a few seconds to realize what was happening. i jumped up and got the treats to make sure i had one ready for him. i don’t think he understood why i was so excited, but that’s ok as long as he continues to scratch correctly. now, let’s hope aj jumps on the bandwagon. maybe he does it when we’re not home. that’s what i like to think.

here’s to many more days of scratch-free doors.