After painting the house to complement Dante’s photogenic coloration, I decided to go the next step and get him a really cool scratching post. He never used scratching posts in his last home, but this one he just can’t resist. He immediately jumps on it and tries it out. This is now his favorite spot in my office. Now he can hang out in my office in a comfortable spot.

How did I know that this $150.00 purchase would be worth the money. Well, first, I knew for sure that he liked perching on objects. In his bathroom, he’d hangout on the counter and look around the corner to see what we were up to. In my room, he’s sleeping on the dog bed on the floor but also chose the top of the shelves. In the office he’d frequently choose the hamper. So he didn’t need a spot with a view outdoors such as in a window. He just needed a spot where he could view what he was interested in-people.

I also did have an old scratch post that he occasionally would run to and grab on and attack. He’d eye it like he was eyeing a jack-rabbit ready to hop off and then leap out and hug it with his front legs while fake biting it-going for the kill. He may have only done this a handful of times but based on this I knew I could train him to like the scratch post by rewarding him with food or catnip if he didn’t immediately love it himself. He also had a tendency to try to scratch the wicker dog toy basket in my office and I wanted to transfer that to the post.

To my surprise, when I got the little tree post, he immediately knew it was his. As soon as he saw it he jumped right on and clawed it. Now he spends most of his time in the office on that tree-sometimes sleeping, sometimes rolling around on his back, sometimes just waiting for me to come over and pet him on the belly. And he no longer tries to scratch the wicker dog basket.