OUR CAT KEEPS RIPPING OFF THE WALLPAPER
PEACH the cat, two, lives in Nottinghamshire with Nicola Hall, 26, a retail manager, and her partner. Nicola says:
PEACH is the prettiest Maine Coon cat — and doesn’t she just know it! Funnily enough, she started off really mellow as a kitten but has definitely been hitting her more trying teenage years.
She’s a big cat and when standing on her hind legs can reach quite high. She’s also an expert jumper.
The first time she started scratching at the wallpaper in the living room, we could hear a tearing sound. There she was behind the television, pulling small pieces away from the wall.
Before that we’d had problems with her ripping the curtains, but it had been a passing phase so we hoped that would be the case with the wallpaper too. Not so.
For the past four months she has torn away at the paper every day, doing her very best to strip the entire wall. Vets advised us to buy even more scratching posts but that doesn’t seem to deter her.
In fact it’s through climbing on one of the scratching towers that she’s managed to reach the paper as far as the ceiling — she’s torn great strips off, from ceiling to floor.
We used to try to stick it back but it’s beyond repair now. There are more holes
than paper. She’s also started pulling the plaster off the walls, tearing at the sofa and she’s removed all the buttons from the footstool.
She’s an indoor cat — I’ve had cats before and outdoor cats don’t seem to live as long; also, she’s an expensive cat and I worry about her being stolen.
Being indoors, however, means her claws tend to be sharper; if she went outside they’d be blunter. We have them regularly clipped.
Yes, we’ll have to redecorate — paint instead of paper! — but Peach is a wonderfully affectionate cat. I love her to bits.
EMMA’S VERDICT: Scratching is normal cat behaviour to mark territory as well as condition claws. Cats love to scratch solid, tall structures, preferably that don’t wobble so they can really lean into them, and also ones with vertical ridges like the bark of a tree.
Lots of scratching posts don’t get used because the rope goes the wrong way, they are too short and too unstable. Hence the love of sofa corners and wallpaper, especially if it’s ridged or patterned. You can get scratch pads that fix to walls which our cat loves.
Being indoors is also a major cause of stress and frustration so think about cat fencing for your garden if you’re worried about the road and her being stolen.