From Pillow To Post

Mauki settles in:

When Daddy first brought me home, he wasn't really ready for me. So he had to put me in the bathroom for a little while and run out to the store to get some stuff. He brought me back a really neat food dish and some yummy crunchies and some treats and a little wire ball with a bell in it and my favorite of all: Mousey.

But after I got settled in, I could find anyplace to scratch. So I just figured I could scratch anywhere. But Daddy didn't care much for that. He caught me scratching on the carpet one day and scolded me. I wasn't happy about that.

The next day, he brought some stuff home with him. Naturally, I had to go inspect it. It was a small piece of plywood, and a small log with bark on it. Daddy went and got his tools and let me watch what he was doing. First, he set the log on the plywood and drew a circle around it. Then he drilled three holes thru the plywood inside the circle. After that, he poured some glue where the log had been and then put the log on it and let it set for a while.

After he had let the glue set for a bit, Daddy took his drill and ran three screws up thru the plywood and into the log. Then he cleaned everything up and set the whole thing over by my food dish. Then he picked me up and told me that was my Scratchy Post and that's the only place I should scratch. He stood me up in front of it and ran my little paws over it so I could get the feel of it. It felt pretty good to scratch on.

There were only a couple of times that I forgot and scratched on the carpet or something. Daddy didn't get really annoyed with me, but he'd squirt me with a water bottle, and that wasn't very nice. Then he'd pick me up and stand me in front of my Scratchy Post and rub my paws on it again to remind me. Once, he saw me scratching on my Scratchy Post and when I got done, he called me over and picked me up and cuddled me. Then he took me out to the kitchen and got me one of my treat. That was lots nicer.

When I went to Tucson to live with Michael, Daddy made sure that my Scratchy Post went along with me. I'm glad Daddy made that for me.