Free Cat Scratching Post

I don’t know if you are still giving away the cat scratching post so I am going to leave my opinion anyway. Oliver (converted feral) and Jade use this pitifull cardboard scratcher which doesn’t hold their interest. They are both clawing up the rug in my apartment. I try to keep their claws trimmed but they grow so fast. As for declawing it is one of the more unhumane thing to do to a cat. Not only is it painful it also will leave a life long effect on their mental state. People who get a cat declawed just so it won’t scratch up the furniture don’t deserve to own a cat. If you keep their nails trimmed that takes care of most of the furniture scratching.
Lynda Allen
640 E. Horizon Dr., Apt. 312
Henderson, NV 89015

Thanks Gail for being so helpful. Dorothy also gave me the full address. I have not heard from Emily yet. I feel I need some sort of confirmation that she is on board with the whole thing before I send her a cat scratching post otherwise someone else might receive it.

Hi Michael,

I don’t know whether or not Emily was able to respond to you yet, but based on her posted info, I was able to look up the rest at the US Post Office.

Your generosity for this person who is trying her best to do the right thing is very admirable. Bless you!

Stay tuned. I’m sending you a sack of good quality cat food. Enjoy your cat!

Dorothy

Hi Emily, please write out your address again fully. I am in England, UK. I can order a cat scratching post from Amazon.com to be delivered to you. I will see what I can do – no promises. The competition is closed but I would consider sending you a cat scratching post nonetheless because of what you have said.

I am a broke college student. My intention was never to get a cat until I was walking my dog one day and saw and kitten laying down in the grass. On first instinct i thought the kitten was dead. His eyes were clamped shut with goop around him and his ribs and bones were sticking out everywhere. He was about 5 weeks old at the time and his chancing of surviving weren’t looking good. I carried him home in a box and fed him and gave him water until he started to come back to life. The next day we couldnt see him for the WHOLE day, I thought he had passed away in our furniture. When a bunch of friends pulled him out he started meowing and looking for
for food. After that moment we know he was going to make it. I am broke so I took him to the petstore and asked if she could help me with the cat. She dewormed him and gave him antibiotics for his eyes FOR FREE. My roomate and I have him on a healthy diet and now hes hyper and bouncy and the livliest little kitten in the whole world. If we had not found him just hours later he would have died. I don’t think declawing is a good thing because animals use their claws for special things like climbing and defense. If you declaw a kitten and it accidently gets out of your house it has NO chance of surviving against predators. My address is 913 N. Charles Apt#9 Macomb, IL

Our nearly 8 month old puppy passed away from Parvo July 10th of this year. He was UTD on his shots, but was very friendly to all animals. He passed away in my arms in my livingroom while my girls were sleeping (thankfully). Not wishing to try and replace him (how could we?)and after hearing sounds in the kitchen, we adopted a 11wk old kitten named Remington last week. We are in love with him but can’t stand his couch clawing. Also I believe declawing is an torturous practice and it essentially removes nearly all of a cats ability to defend itself. Its cruel and unecessary. If your cat is scratching, try to find the reason why then work on a solution. DONT RUIN YOUR CAT!!!! phattipooh@msn.com

i have a tiny cat scratching post but she wont use it i cut her nails. i wont declaw her at all. i have so many battle scars but she is worth it. this proceder is very painful for them im a vegatarien and im a member of peta. unfortunately im unemployed like the rest of the world and want the best for my little cat named pretty. i found her as a 4 week old kitten outside of my home and she has been my angel every since.

i just found a abandond kitty and she is mine now. cats should have a say in things but they dont have ur cats nails trimed and they will be fine a scratching post does wonders. quit putting animals thru unnecassary pain its totally cruel.

Heather, Thank you very much for NOT declawing your cat. Your 9-month old is exercising and just needs to be refocused to scratch something other than your speakers and furniture.

The scratching post that I won is really a godsend now that I have my Abby – a mixed Maine Coon cat. Sadly, my Sadie, a gorgeous tortie crossed the Rainbow Bridge a couple months back and never really got the chance to truly exercise with the scratching post – she was very sick and went downhill rapidly. That being said, Abby is just shy of 3-years and is ACTIVE like crazy! She adores the post and launches herself at it, trying to knock it over but is surprised every time when she cannot.

I highly recommend getting this post for your little one – liberally sprinkle catnip on it and watch your baby go to town!

My cat is 9 months old and she uses my furniture and speakers as a scratching post and it is ripping them. I do not believe in declawing cats because it causes them pain and it is a defense mechanism for cats to have claws. I want my cat to be free spirited and I believe if I was to declaw her that it would break her spirit.

My Carpet is the best choice for my refuge seeking felines to dig their claws, reminds me to trim their claw points, even though my mother admonishes them they quickly return to pull out the threads.

I ignore both behaviour(Mother’s and Cat’s).

Where I live (in South India) the tropical climate considered , Carpets are really not required except for preventing TV remotes from breaking.

Better a Happy and Healthy Cat, than a Dusty Carpet.

Just got our scratching post too. That box is rather heavy, so I’ve got to return to the office tomorrow morning with my ‘old lady cart’ to bring it home via train. I showed it to the people here in the office and they were a wee jealous, LOL!

Thanks again, Michael. Sadie will sure enjoy the heck out of this!

Well, the cats loved the box it came in- started scratching at that right away! Ha!

They’re mostly still trying to figure it out, although they love jumping on top of it! I’ll have to rub catnip into the rope tomorrow and see if that helps. 🙂

Emelda:

The following items have been shipped to you by Amazon.com..1 SmartCat Ultimate Scratchi…

via UPS (estimated delivery date: August 03, 2010).

Thanks so much! Sorry I’m getting this late- I’ve been in D.C. for the No Kill Conference and just got around to checking my emails. What a pleasant surprise! Thanks again, and I’ll definitely check in after we get it!

Em

My Cats have this exact scratching post and LOVE it! My tall male cats like to climb their way up – your cats will love it. I’ve worked in animal shelters for years and have tried to help educate the public about the cruelty of declawing. Let’s hope it is soon a thing of the past! Great Job!

Congratulations to the winners, I hope the scratching posts bring many happy hours to the feline recipients. A brilliant idea Michael and very generous prizes. As has been said a win-win situation all round.

Congratulations Gail and Emelda !
I thought there would be dozens of entries in your competition Michael,88 people had looked at my post about it on Aboutcats.com !
I suppose it’s so unusual these days to be offered something free that maybe they all thought there must be a catch, so didn’t enter lol
It was a wonderful way to get people talking about
the cruelty of declawing.

Wow… Thank you so much! I’m just giddy with anticipation…so are my co-workers!

One peer had me email her the winning posts from Emelda and me, so she could read them. It was the perfect opportunity to open a discussion about declawing cats! Win-win all around. Thanks again.

Thursday July 29th 1 pm GMT (it is about 7 hrs behind in the USA): I have ordered the cat scratching posts. Delivery is in 5-9 days.

Please confirm receipt by leaving a post. I’d be pleased to know how it turned out.

Enjoy and thanks again.

The winners are:

Gail M and

Emelda Ortiz

The best overall answer for me was Gail’s. Well done Gail.

I’ll make arrangements for purchase and shipping. If there are any hiccups I’ll post a comment. I would be pleased therefore if the winners could be alert to further comments.

Well done and thanks for participating. There will be more competitions so more chances. Sorry to those who didn’t win.

Thanks Ruth, this is a big, strong and solid post, just how cats like it.

I could do with one myself!

I will give this competition about another week to run then award the prizes.

Thanks for participating and commenting. If anyone has ideas for another competition please tell me.

I posted the link on the site as I pop there to update how our petition is doing….one member says:

I won’t enter because we already have plenty of posts. In fact – we have that one! It is a fabulous post. It has stood up to abuse better than the sisal rope on the cat tree.

She said I could quote her here.
A good recomendation for the prize !

What a fab idea!

My boys would love to get their claws into that!!

They have a ‘fat boy’ at the moment but I know they would love one of those also.

Good luck to everyone who enters!

Michael, this competition is a brilliant idea. You’ve had some fantastic answers already so I don’t envy you having to choose just two. Good luck to everyone entering.

To Emelda; If you lay some of the shorter scratching posts on their side, you might find that some of the cats will use them as a horizontal scratcher. This worked with my male cat when he grew too tall for one of his upright posts.

I checked on the web and it would appear that declawing is still a very grey area in S.A., no one can tell for sure if it is banned or not.

I found a website angelpaws.co.za also further contact is email: info@angelpaws.co.za

Angel Paws are the official South African distributors of the Soft Paws nail caps designed and patented by Dr. Toby Wexler.

Our mission is to save all cats from the horrors of declawing by offering an affordable and pain free alternative.
I’m not sure what you feel about this product, if it is a viable alternative?

I am furthermore going to

Michael I don’t want to enter this competition as our cats have numerous scratching posts and of course we don’t live in the USA.
I just want to say what a wonderful idea this is and good luck to all the entrants.
Also to take the chance to promote our petition to ban declawing:

I am a caretaker for a small group of Feral cats. They have their own barn and enclosure to keep them safe. They would love a new scratching post. As a rescue we NEVER declaw and will not adopt to someone who wants to declaw. Cats were born with claws for a reason, declawing is animal abuse! Declawing should be banned in all countries of the world.

This is a fabulous idea. Good luck picking the winner though. I’m glad I don’t have to do it. Most people who visit this site and some of the best in the world. USA or not.

Dorothy
Central Coast, CA
USA

Hi Michael, I would definitely like to put my name into the competition for the free scratching post. Following are answers to the questions posed:

1. Sadie’s scratching post is cone-shaped, slightly shorter than her body outstretched full-length and has carpeting on it. Unlike sisel, the carpeting has worn out and she has shown less and less interest. Although she also has the cardboard-type scratching toys with the ball that goes round, as well as the rectangular type on the floor, it would be nice to provide her with a full-length post that she could really exercise with. She has bouts of crazy energy and loves scratching and this post seems to be a winner! Although her scratching the furniture is no big deal to me (I cover them), a real post would be so much nicer for her to hang out on. She is my pride and joy and anything that improves her quality of life is a privelege to provide.

2. Declawing cats is the ultimate in animal abuse. It is totally unnecessary and is done for the profit of the vets performing the surgery and the convenience of humans who do not wish to deal with claws. Cats come with claws. That’s part of the deal. Human laziness is no excuse; cats are not a decoration. They are living, breathing, sentient beings with feelings who deserve our respect.

Volunteering in our local shelter, time and again, declawed cats are surrendered because their destructive behavior only increased after surgery. They are psychologically damaged, fearful and the personality changes are heartbreaking. The pain never goes away. It’s like mutilating a needed limb from a person. Claws are not like fingernails. Declawing is, in essence, a mutilation and one of the higher forms of abuse. The actual bone is cut into to remove claws…how horrific is that?

Cats use their claws as tools for living. Their purpose includes protection from animal predators and human alike, scratching, walking, climbing, stretching to tone their back and shoulder muscles, prey (mousing), and balance just to name a few. One would no sooner cut off a child’s hand when they drew with crayon on the walls, so why should a cat suffer an unnecessary declaw?

Sorry to be so long-winded. If I am chosen, please ship to:

Attention: Gail M.
c/o Hammond Residential Real Estate
29 Commonwealth Ave, 4th Floor
Boston, MA 02116

Thanks!

I would love to get a free Ultimate Cat Scratcher- I’ve had my eye on one for years, but haven’t gotten around to buying it. I’m a foster parent to cats (sometimes dogs) and currently I have 7 foster cats. I have a few scratching posts that have been donated to me, but most of the adults cats leave them be as they’re always too short for a good stretch! I think declawing is horrendous and the after affects are inexcusable. I work with the new cat parents with alternatives to declawing and often bring up the story of one of my foster cats (may he r.i.p.) who came to me with severe arthritis and litterbox aversion due to the declawing/caused arthritis. over a decade after his claws were mutilated, he still screamed in pain when I touched his paw. My poor sweet boy. Anyway! Getting an ultimate cat scratcher would really help me train the adult fosters to use posts, so their new homes are less likely to consider declawing. My address: Emelda Ortiz/2453 N. Mozart, #1/Chicago, IL 60647/USA- veganemelda@gmail.com Thanks!

I am currently fostering a number of kitties that I have rescued and would NEVER knowingly adopt them into a home where the new owner plans on declawing them. The procedure is inhumane and shows the selfishness of the cat’s “owner”. Declawers should be ashamed for valuing material possessions such as furniture over the welfare of their pet.

Do you cut your human children’s fingers off when they write on walls or other inappropriate places?

People also need to understand that they don’t just recover from the surgery. A declawed cat must live with lifelong psychological problems and shame on anyone that puts their cat through this.