About a month ago we inherited a never-used sofa bed and matching recliner chair. Nice, neutral in style and colour, comfy, and miles more attractive and less uncomfortable than the tiny 30 year old sofa bed we’d picked up at a garage sale a few years ago. That sofa bed was being used as a scratching post by our three fluffy hellions, so we’ve been keeping an eye on them when they’re in the living room with the new set. If we’re in the apartment and hear that tell-tale “skrr skrr skrr pop” we yell, clap our hands sharply, or smack the offending puss on the rear (depends how persistent they’re being). Well, you can’t watch them all day, so when we noticed a thread or two hanging off the arm rest of the sofa we decided to cut further damage off at the pass.
We brought home a board wrapped in heavy jute rope and screwed it to one of our doorframes.
All three cats ignored it.
I rubbed some catnip on it. They rolled around on the floor in front of it on the bits that fell off.
One by one, I picked each of them up and carried them over to the scratching board, put them down, picked up their front paws and made little scratchy movements against the rope. They pulled their paws out of my hands and gave me injured looks.
I gave up. Another terrific idea, down the drain.
A couple of days ago, I was in the bedroom and heard the “skrr skrr skrr pop” sound. I yelled; the sound didn’t stop. I walked into the living room ready to dish out hell, and there was Maggie, on her back legs, back curved, her front claws locked in the rope, looking at me like I was an idiot human who was contradicting myself again.
Ahem.
She’s the only one who uses it, though. The other two haven’t figured it out yet. Either that, or they’ve tried and she’s defended it, having decided it’s her personal scratchy spot. My money’s on Maggie telling the other two that it’s really better for them if they use the sofa to sharpen their claws, and she’s no longer using it to give them more opportunities.
Oscar Review:
I haven’t watched the Oscars in years, namely because I’ve been so disinterested in what the world of film has had to offer. Last night we watched the back-to-back Enterprise episodes, then tuned in to the Academy Awards in time to watch Sidney Poitier receive his honorary Oscar. I missed all the LoTR awards, but by checking out the web site I’m very pleased to see that Howard Shore got a statue for his incredible score which rarely leaves slot no. 3 in our CD tray. I did have the fortune to see Randy Newman win for Best Song, however, which was long overdue.
Overall, I’m pleasantly surprised to see films like Gosford Park and A Beautiful Mind be honoured. These are films which I was excited about when I heard they were being released, then got swamped by the general raving hullabaloo once they came out and lost any desire to see them. Guess I’ll be fixing the oversight soon. Maybe I’ll rent Moulin Rouge so I can finally see that as well. Oh, and why not see LoTR again while I’m at it.
Movies I’m looking forward to this year: Possession (scheduled for July 2002, based on the novel by A.S. Byatt, which is one of my Desert Island books and one of the three focal points of my M.A. thesis – although apparently this film ruins the whole turning point of the novel by making the scholars American!), The Importance Of Being Earnest (Oscar Wilde rides again!), Star Wars: Episode Two (I refuse to call it by the lame, lame title – we’ll all call it Ep2 anyway), Spider-Man, Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets (a title which can’t be changed for American audiences, thanks the gods), and of course, The Two Towers. Most of which are likely to be ignored this time next year.