Can you have two or more cats and still have furniture, screens and drapes intact?

My house would be in shreds. Not to mention the cat crap everywhere.

^^^^^^^^ how do you know? And what about litter boxes?

Because I’ve had cats all of my life. Everyone of them clawed on the furniture. i couldn’t imagine having 4 to 6 of them.

I refuse to use litter boxes. I house train my cats just like I house train my dogs.

My best friend gets her cats from animal shelters only if they’ve been declawed. Seems like a good idea and she has no guilt from doing such a thing to them.

Declawing is inhuman. You know they amputate the first joint on their paws, right? It would be the same thing as removing the ends of your fingers and toes.
Also, that leaves them with no protection.

I have two amazing cats with impeccable house manners.
They have a large cat tower and never soil outside their little box or do anything destructive. The worst they have done is, very rarely, jump on a table top and once in a great while they have a moment of scratching on a big area rug. No damage and they are quickly corrected.

All it takes is a sharp “No” and clap of your hands. Cats are very intelligent and if you are consistent in their training they know what is allowed and what is not.
A water spray bottle is a miracle for training a cat, it only takes about 3 zaps before they quickly associate the bottle with bad behavior. All you have to do is point it at them and you have the purr-fect kitty again.

Pavlovs blinking cats. lol

I have four cats – two are 10 or older and two are just over a year old. I have big scratch posts that are also like cat condo type things. The cats use those. On occasion, I’d see a pull in the shower curtain but I recently got a new one and all is well so far, for the past two months I’ve had it, no problems.

There is cat hair and I have a professional cleaning lady come once every two weeks.

I use lint rollers on my clothes if the black pants get hair on them.

Yes, sure you can. And they will only use the cat box to poop or pee, too! (If they are superior kitties).

I had 4 cats for three or four years during my 9 year stay in Branson. They were Calicos and I was searching for the incredibly rare ten million dollar male Calico (never did get one!)

So, since I was awaiting that male Calico, I had to let them have litters of kittens. They would all get pregnant and have their babies within a week of each other. (15 to 20 kittens lived with me + the 4 mamas). They were incredibly clean.

I would maybe change the curtains to some you buy at a Thrift Shop!

I have 6 cats and one bunny. My cats do not claw furniture, they do not jump up on counters and they always use the litter box.

You can train a cat. Most people just don’t know how or they are just lazy. It takes patience and awareness to train a cat. Most people just don’t bother and then blame the cat for their mistakes.

Declawing is inhumane. Most civilized countries have banned the practice. Certain cities where I live have banned the practice. I believe there is a state wide initiative trying to get declawing banned in California.

We have sisal posts on the cat condo and a natural wood cat condo; but our current two prefer the corner of the couch and the carpet. The living room rug seems to tolerate it wall, but the dining room rug was cheaper and pulls a bit. I put a throw around the corner of the couch, which hides the damage and seems to deter them. The kitten tries climbing the screen to the back door when he desperately wants to go out, so that has some rips in it.

I’ve had cats all my life and scratching behaviors and preferences varied greatly. My cats don’t mess with my leather chairs, but I’ve known ones that do shred leather furniture. There’s no telling what will appeal to them. I agree that cat’s can be trained; ours do not go on the counter or table, but I’ve always found clawing behavior harder to train.

I will not declaw my cats, because it is inhumane, as others have mentioned, and a ban on the practice would be great.

You know what my cats do scratch? The wood trim around certain doorways.

I regularly trim their fingernails and that seems to take care of it. They actually are used to it and don’t complain (much) during the procedure. Only they dislike being constrained.

It totally depends on the cat. Mine will scratch the bike tires when they can get away with it, but it’s not a frequent thing. We clip their nails every month or so.

We have two cats and they do their catching on their TurboScratcher. Before the TurboSratcher they destroyed the carpet on the stairs but it was old and needed replacing so no harm no fowl.

Dogs do damage too you know. My Mom had a pug the ate the fabric off the arm of her new couch and it was no big deal for her. She just covered it up.

I had one cat once, a black cat, that refused to be house trained in any way, shape or form. She wouldn’t go outside and she wouldn’t use a litter box. It was pretty disgusting.

Our cats did have a few spots where they’d scratch occasionally, but cats can be trained. We didn’t mind these specific places. De-clawing is a horrible, horrible practice.

@Dutchess_III
1.“I refuse to use litter boxes. I house train my cats just like I house train my dogs.”

2. “Not to mention the cat crap everywhere.”

Wow….seems like a great idea…~

I assume you were talking about the garden in your first post ;)

@Dan_Lyons How incredibly selfish of you to continue to bring so many kittens in this world. There are not enough homes for those that are born already, and you do that just to try and get a rare male calico? Shame on you!

I have only one cat and in spite of all of @tinyfaery‘s training and admonitions, when I sleep or leave the premises, this is what happens. Notice perfectly good scratching post to right of damaged bureau door. Since this picture was taken, the second cane door is equally clawed.

Another opinion on the efficacy of scratching posts

@gailcalled Try putting some double-sided tape on the cane doors or other spots you don’t want him clawing to make it uncomfortable for him to put his pads up on them. Then get a vertical hanging sisal scratcher, rub some catnip on it, and hang it right next to the bureau.

Thanks, but too late. I made my peace with the destruction; at some point the doors can be recaned by a competent craftsperson.

@anniereborn That is simply silly of you to say so without first asking me what I did with all those kitties when they reached 6 weeks old.
For your information, I would take five at a time to the nearby Walmart and give them away to people who really really wanted a kitten. I learned that in three hours you could give away five kittens to people who had to swear they would love them and care for them.
So thank you very much for making a thoughtless statement with which I see at least five others also agreed without asking what actually happened to my kittens.

And, for your information, those kittens had the best lives possible while in my care for their first six weeks. They ran around my apartment freely, climbing the curtains and their Purple dragon climbing beast with the dangling ropes.

Years later people would find me just to tell me how well their cat was doing and thanked me for giving them the best pet they ever had.

@Dan_Lyons Guess what. All those people that wanted a kitty and took yours would have taken another one somewhere else. If your cats gave birth to say..30 kittens, that’s 30 homeless kittens that could have had a home.

@anniereborn
Says you.
Those people did not want homeless strays from the pound, nor did they want feral cats. They wanted kittens which were tame and friendly and had been brought up by a decent caring loving human being.
So your 30 homeless kittens would have remained homeless and then probably killed by the humane society.

Not all kittens at the pound are feral or stray.

We had a neighbor who bred their calico cat to death looking for a male calico. 3, 4 litters a year.

Mine only had one litter a year, in the spring @Dutchess_III. and after three years I had them fixed.

Within a week of bringing them back from the vet and after being spayed they simply disappeared without a trace.

Poof.

Allowing cats to breed uncontrolled is monumentally irresponsible. I don’t care how many you give away to people who really really want a kitten. People who pick up free kittens at Walmart are simply acting on impulse, haven’t made a thought out decision, and are just as likely to abandon the cat once it’s an adult and isn’t quite so cute anymore. They’re also not likely to have those cats fixed, which leads to more uncontrolled breeding, which leads to overpopulation of stray cats.

Furthermore cats are an invasive species pretty much everywhere. They’re also apex predators who have few natural predators of their own. They can decimate local native populations of birds and small wildlife.

You’re wrong again. Most of the people who picked up my kittens at Walmart asked me to save the kitten they had chosen and when they returned from inside they had cat food and sand and a new litter box.

@Dan_Lyons Not the kind of preparation we mean. It’s irresponsible to just give away animals, not knowing where they will spend their lives.

“Those people did not want homeless strays from the pound.”

Just the cute kittens, huh? Well…kittens don’t stay cute. They grow. Then – unless they have been adopted by loving, but also sensible and responsible people – they are shipped off to the pound. Adopting a kitten from a random stranger is neither sensible nor responsible.

You may have meant well, but you didn’t think this through.

@Dan_Lyons: Going into a store and buying cat food and a litter box for a kitten you’d not given a thought to getting a half hour prior does not indicate getting the kitten wasn’t an impulsive act. People who make a conscientious decision to go to a shelter to get a cat have given it a lot of thought and probably filled out paperwork to obtain the kitten or cat. They are also approved and the shelter determines that their landlord will allow it, their parents will allow it if they’re minors, and that they will make good pet owners. They also determine that they’re not looking to take kittens to use as bait in dog fighting.

Allowing a cat or dog to breed uncontrollably is definitely inappropriate and irresponsible. Every shelter has cats and dogs that have been abandoned by their owners, all ages of cats and dogs. Most feral cats will not be captured and are not adoptable, so those will not usually be what a shelter offers. Feral cats are dealt with by feral cat organizations who have, as potential customers, people who understand what is involved with a feral cat. I used to trap, spay and neuter feral cats and had one myself, so I know that type of cat will never be in a shelter because they would probably die of fright. Their kittens can be caught and turned into house pets with some work, but the adult cats, 50/50 chance.

@Dan_Lyons I have a little exercise for you: go to the craigslist page for your area, then click on “community,” then “pets.” Now check out all the ads for cats that are from individuals and not from shelters. They are usually about 1–2 years old, perfect loving cats where the owner 1) just got a new job and unfortunately doesn’t have enough time for it anymore; they love the cat and want it to have a home where it will receive the kind of attention it deserves, 2) had the cat for a few months and whoops, turns out Junior’s allergic, 3) is moving and the new place won’t accept pets. Oh and the cat is not fixed or up to date on vaccinations, and by the way they want a “rehoming fee” to ensure the cat is going to a good new home (like they had been providing one). They really don’t want to take the cat to the shelter, but it has to be gone ASAP for some reason so if no one contacts by the end of the week…

Now, think about the people making these postings. We can see that at best they have an obvious lack of committment to their cats (excepting the legitimate allergy cases); at worst they are lying resellers of animals they picked up free somehow. And then think about the people who picked up your kittens on a whim outside the Walmart. Think there might be any overlap between these groups?

@Dan_Lyons: And to add to what @wildpotato said, I often hear about people who have a kitten or a cat and kids, and the cat scratches the kid, and then the cat gets thrown out or thrown into a basement or hit because of what it did.

OR the cat gets thrown out of the house or punished unjustly because it goes to the bathroom outside of the box or pukes on the floor or any other number of infractions that people who don’t understand cats won’t comprehend.

OR those pet cats go into heat (because the people don’t understand the need for spaying or they can’t afford spaying) and they let the cat out because it won’t shut up, and it comes back pregnant. Then they have kittens of their own, which either are now living outside or given away the way you gave yours away, and the cycle continues. When you adopt a cat from a shelter, they come either spayed or with spaying included in the fee, and they make sure you bring the cat back when it’s old enough so that they try to stem the tide of more unwanted cats and kittens.

When you see a dumpster behind a bank or a food store or restaurant and you see stray cats looking for food, or you move to a house or apartment building and see stray cats hanging around, where do you think those cats came from? They came from people like the ones I described above and @wildpotato described.

@longgone When you say we are you referring to you and a mousie in your pocket? Many of the kittens grew up to become responsible, non-threatening cats. I visited many of them in their new homes later in their lives.
@jca My cats did not breed uncontrollably. I guess you haven’t even read a word I’ve written.
@wildpotato Are you suggesting that because a few listings on some obscure website are tryin to give away cats because the owner is moving that this is true of all cat owners? Really!
@jca Spaying only cost $35 per cat back then (this is in the 80s in a small town in Missouri).
There are no stray cats behind my bank.

@Dan_Lyons Wow. Way to really miss the point. I guess you can’t see beyond the nose on your face.

@anniereborn Wow, way to make an attempt at a personal insult.

Stop.

@anniereborn: He intentionally chose to miss the point. His best defense is a good offense.

@jca Another attempt at a personal insult? Really. I wonder why you think you need to continue to harangue me when I stated way back in the thread that I had my cats fixed and then they all went missing.
I have not owned a cat since (because wherever I go there are always neighbors’ cats who find me and i can pet them and then shoo them away.

At one point, I had three cats, and had no holes or scratching in anything. We gave them scratching posts and discouraged them from scratching the furniture (usually with a spray bottle, or by feigning the sound of the spray bottle). We had hardwood floors, so never worried about carpets. Overnight, we locked the cats into our large kitchen/dining room area, which contained nothing scratchable. It never became a problem.

@Dan_Lyons: Because a lot of information was given to you about the effects of irresponsible cat breeding and yet you seem to not want to discuss it.

@Dan_Lyons
You said, ”...when they returned from inside they had cat food and sand and a new litter box.”

I said, in response, “Not the kind of preparation we mean.”

By ‘we’, I meant other jellies and myself. You ignored all but my first sentence, by the way.

@Dan_Lyons craigslist is not an obscure website by any stretch of the word. It is ranked #51 in the list of website traffic, and it is surprising that any computer literate person would not have heard of or used it. Not trying to be hostile or anything here – you should seriously check it out if you’ve never explored it before. Especially best-of-craigslist; you’ll laugh your socks off.

Link to the best of, please?

@Dutchess_III Worth the productivity you’ll lose today. :)

Annoying video on what cats can be taught. I warned you. Mute it – and ignore the quotes.

“No Republicans please”!! ROFLOL!

Love the snail one! At least that person was sane, and deliberately made the ad funny!

I quite enjoyed the “free crappy violin case”.

Back on topic here!

Those cats also do not like Republicans. I see a trend.

I know! That was the second negative reference to Republicans I saw!

Just got done trimming the cats’ finger and toenails. They don’t get toenails trimmed as often and they really get upset when I trim them. Needless to say, I have no lap kitty right now.

^^ A one-man job or did you have a squad to help?

Yes, but you are wrong @jca regarding my responsible cat breeding, And yet I don’t insult you as to your nastiness.
You are worth ignoring as well on this topic @longgone Since I was a resident of the town, as were those who fell in love with my kittens and wanted them badly enough to go into the store and buy food and litter for them, I felt they would be responsible cat people And I knew many of these cat lovers personally.
After seeing the kitties grow over the years I knew I was right.
@wildpotato Gee, I wonder how many of those excuses were actually truthful? (By the way, I have actually heard of Craigslist. I have never visited the site. Being a computer literate person I chose long ago not to expose my equipment to their codes. Don’t get me wrong, I’m sure there’s nothing to it but I also simply have never had the inclination to go there).

@Dan_Lyons Nice.

@Dan_Lyons Not sure what excuses you are referring to…?

@gailcalled Two people. Mama held the top half, I got the feet and toes. Things didn’t get serious til I finished fingers and went for Piggies! :)

Doesn’t a scratching post keep their claws trimmed? I have never trimmed a cat’s claws! I shudder to even consider it!

My experience with scratching posts is it keeps claws shorter, but razor sharp! I just pop each finger and toe out and clip the sharp part off, paying careful mind to the quick (meaty bits inside the nail)

I let my husband do all the nail clipping on the dogs. I am terrified of accidentally hitting the quick. I can only imagine the searing pain that would cause!

@majorrich: Dew claws also? I commend you and the Restrainer.