Scratching Cats Like Natural Scratch

There is no doubt that many cats take to Natural Scratch with little prompting by their human companions. Regardless of the cat's willingness to do naturally and without persuasion what you want it to do, it can be trained to claw Natural Scratch exclusively. No exceptions.

With features such as the softness of white cedar and red cedar; the Mouse Hole and Antenna (interactive toys); excellent stability; and the training booklet, Natural Scratch has nearly everything most cat lovers need to succeed.

Add a kitty treat reward your cat craves, consistency, and love, and you're nearly home free. Now all you need to do is put forth a little time.

Soon, your cat will be scratching exactly where you want it to: Natural Scratch.

Giving thanks

On this day of celebration, it's wise to remember how fortunate we are if we have our health. My mother used to say, "When you have your health, you have everything." So true but easy to forget in the rush of life.

If *you* have everything, pledge a little plano cash or some of your time on this day of thanks to organizations that help those who don't, from animals in shelters and in the wild to people here in America and around the world.

Charlatans have given some charities a bad name but in our Google era, it's easy to check the legitimacy of a group just by popping the name into search and hitting enter.

I wish I had more to give because the need is great but at least I do what I can. I urge you to, too. John Lennon wrote many brilliant things including, "Love is all you need."

Cat scratching and other companion wear

People who want absolute perfection in their living spaces will have a hard time dealing with the wear that occurs when any living thing is brought into the environment, including children and even prior to that a human companion or spouse. Living things cause damage...

Pets are wonderful but those who decide to have one take up residence should be prepared to clean up "accidents." Such things are totally natural.

Children are much harder on things than pets could ever be so if you have children already you won't have to adjust much should you bring a cat or dog home. And I hope you will.

Cats with claws, even when completely trained and only clawing what you want them to claw, will still now and then race across something with their claws outstretched for additional traction. It's in their natures.

But, keep in mind what a great thing it is to have companions. It's certainly worth the rather minor wear and tear that might occur.

Cat Scratching? No. Fox update.

'Course I think foxes are beautiful and wonderful creatures but they don't belong in suburbia--too many hazards for them.

As I mentioned in an earlier post, our dog caught scabies from foxes that took up residence in our neighborhood and almost died. After treatment, he's doing great.

Yesterday while taking him for a walk, a lady I passed who was tending her lawn wanted to pet him and struck up a conversation. I asked if she had seen the foxes and indeed she had. I warned her about the scabies and she immediately said she had been itching like crazy lately. My advice was to hurry to a dermatologist.

Another lady farther on the walk also wanted to pet Comet who is a handsome pup. I mentioned the foxes to her too and she said she had recently found one dead, struck by a car.

Coincidentally I saw the final one of the three kits on our deck just yesterday morning. As I always do, I chased it away in an attempt to get it to fear humans. That's its only hope.

Cat scratching? No. Wonderful? Definitely.

Rachel Carson wrote an amazingly influential book named *Silent Spring* that was published in 1962. In it she reported on the terrible impacts on American birds DDT and other pesticides were having.

This hawk (either a juvenile Sharp-shinned Hawk or juvenile Cooper's Hawk, a representative of the Wisconsin Society for Ornithology tells me), which recently landed outside my office window, is wonderful evidence of the impact of her powerful book.

When I was a boy in the fifties and sixties, my friends and I never saw hawks and we would have noticed them. When my parents took me from Janesville, Wisconsin, where I grew up, to my birthplace in northern Wisconsin—Shawano County—we didn’t see hawks or eagles there either. And we never saw them when we traveled the highways of Wisconsin which we did regularly.

Raptor numbers had declined precipitously.

After Carson’s book, DDT and many other chemicals were banned and, by the 1970s, I saw my first hawks. Now, hawks are common again, and I frequently see them circling in the skies outside my office window. Rarely does one land as this one did but it clearly had been attracted by the birds visiting the feeder that is to its right.

Eagles too have made a comeback, and we frequently see them when we visit a family cabin in Florence County, Wisconsin. Moreover, a nesting pair was reported last summer in a community only about 20 miles north of Milwaukee.

Thank you, Rachel Carson!