[colivigan]

This thing rules. Our cat Emmy, like many of her species, loved to scratch on the carpet and furniture. She was doing some serious damage. Since she goes outside and we have been brainwashed by the Cat People, declawing is not an option.

Then my wife found salvation at Trader Joe's. The double-wide cat scratcher is nothing more than a shallow box, packed full of strips of corrugated cardboard stood on end. It comes with a bag of dried catnip which you spread over the surface so that it falls into all the cracks and crevices of the cardboard. Unreachable, yet tantalizingly near.

Emmy loves it, and so do we. She doesn't scratch the rug any more, now she only scratches on her double-wide.

I hope it continues. Replenishing the catnip every now and then is a small price to pay. We just bought a second one for our bedroom.

[curiousuburb]

I wasn't sure if you meant the cat or the scratcher was double-wide... I've seen both.

Glad you've got the optimum mix.

[709]

I've got one of these scratch boxes as well. Gato loves it. It's cool, because once one side is all scratched up you can just flip the cardboard over. He never scratches anything else.

[Windswept]

Wow, thanks for the tip, guys.

I'm gonna get one of those boxes for my brother who has two cats.

How much do they cost?

[709]

They're pretty inexpensive. About 10 bucks to start, and refills from the local PetSmart for less.

(*note: I've got the flat version, not the 'Alpine' version pictured....Gato would be mortified if I ever subjected him to something so ugly.)

[colivigan]

Anyone else notice that, while humans get red-eye, cats get green-eye?

[drewprops]

I'll consider myself to be a "double-wide cat scratcher" until I'm back to my fighting weight.

[curiousuburb]

Originally Posted by UncleJohn Anyone else notice that, while humans get red-eye, cats get green-eye?

Cats have much better night vision (as do many other animals)... there's an optics/biology connection.

IIRC, it's partly to do with their retina, partly with their lenses.

<goes to check>

Wiki says sometimes they can be green, yellow, blue, or pink in photos due to a reflecting layer behind the retina