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Old January 29th 10, 05:09 AM posted to rec.pets.cats.health+behav
bill
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Posts: 7
Default EmeryCat - big mistake

On Jan 28, 6:11*am, YvonneD wrote:
I decided to try the EmeryCat. *My little cat's claws are very sharp
and tend to get stuck on things. *Cutting them is a real ordeal that
requires one to cut and one to hold her down. *We all end up
traumatized.

What the EmeryCat is, is just those regular corrugated cardboard
scratching boards with one side covered with a fine sand. *The sand is
somehow glued on. *When I opened the package, loose sand spilled all
over the floor. *I shook off anything that was loose and put it down.

snip

I saw the infomercials for the EmeryCat. I didn't realize it
included sand, I assumed it was a cute marketing term for
cardboard. But I also saw in KMart the plain cardboard
scratching boxes were $13 and I passed on those too.

So I picked up a couple of discarded flat panel TV boxes and an
empty DVD player box at the local TV store, used a box cutter to
slice the TV boxes into strips, stacked those side by side until
I filled the DVD box, and my cat won't have a thing to do with
that either. When I sprinkled some catnip across it he did walk
over it on the way to the food. To be honest, I expected this
would happen and I'm not aggravated, I spent an hour's work and
the possibility of slicing off my thumb, saved $13 or $35 and
got the same result that you did, I think I got a bargain. So
passed it along to someone who says their cat loves these and I
haven't heard what happened.

While at KMart I got a package of five large sheets of medium
coarse sandpaper, I wish it was coarser, for about $3, am going
to attempt gluing that to a board I fished out of the dumpster
and see if he will scratch on that. I am expecting he will have
nothing to do with this and I'm ok with that too. I only wish I
could find something he would do to wear down his claws, and
that I could get the sandpaper back off the board to use for
something else later. Note: Some web pages claim cats cannot
stand the texture of sandpaper, others are selling cat
scratching devices made from sand paper. Who knows.

If anyone has any other ideas for something to get a cat to wear
down his front claws I'd appreciate the information. But he is
a very old cat now and "start getting him used to having his
claws trimmed eighteen years ago" isn't an option anymore.

The only time he has had his claws trimmed was while he was
sedated for dental surgery. I don't call him Slasher for
nothing and one vet has a blood stained note in his chart saying
"Do NOT try to touch cat's feet!" I did warn the vet as he
started to reach, but he ignored me.