Wednesday, August 27, 2008

Wednesday whirl and Bastant baskets

The sad state of cardboard and scratchboard...

Toro and Megat giving the basket a try...
Hmmm...very comfy...

Just a little dust, easily solved...

This is good only for one...

Tanaka is planning to build a home in it...

Bujang investigating the new scratchboard and matatabi...


The scratchboard is the bane in grandma's psyche but a boon for the amigos. Bujang of course loves to tear the cardboard that comes for all the scratchboards. he loves to spit them into the air with great panache. The point is it does mess up the house...endlessly so.


Then I read in dawn's blog about an Ikea Hacker idea using bastant baskets to house the scratchboards. EUREKA! I had wanted to see if Ikea sells carpet squares that I can buy to stick to a cat tree that my colleague is making for me. But they had none and Giant had none. Then I remembered the IKEA hacker idea and so I bought one basket first. I know the amigos enough to know that they might not take to the idea, no matter how reasonable.


Tanaka took to the idea very quickly as did Toro and Megat. They all got into the basket and scratched away. They even sat in it for a bit. The only one who did not see the attarction was Bujang until I gave him some matatabi (courtesy of cat_aunty) incentive. He sniffed, sat and scratched. I think we had quite a success here. :)

I had to put the inserts in their cardboard housing though as the dust gets out of the basket and played havoc with the tiles. But after that, all is smooth sailing. But as usual we will have to see if this can be a long time solution for everyone.

5 comments:

  1. The cats don't like to use the vertical scratching post (with ropes)?

    I'm afraid if I try this, Coco may chew up the cardboard instead of scratching it. :P

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  2. They love their vertical scratching posts but they also use these scratch mats and boards. The boards are used after they get up from their naps I notice. They use their vertical posts when they happen to pass by them :) The amigos love their boards I must say.

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  3. My cats love the Ikea scratch boards as well, except that I'm too cheapskate to buy a basket to put the scratch boards in. I'm currently using a cardboard box - the one that mandarin oranges come in during CNY - and two of the Ikea scratch boards fit in perfectly! And like your amigos, san, they love lounging in the box.

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  4. dear ck

    If I can put them into another box I will excpet BIG BOSS Bujang will have a field day tearing and spitting the torn cardboard pieces He had decimated one big box some time ago. The other boys follow him and so they have all learnt to tear and spit excpet megat who has not many teeth to begin with :)

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  5. Anonymous11:44 AM

    You are absolutely right in saying that "the point is....mess up the house...endlessly so."

    The shallow 90x90cm tray (under cage) is not of much use. I put litter box & scratch board on the tray.
    Cats trail litter or scratch up a storm but most of the bits would stay in the tray - easier to vaccum one area.

    Let it rip !!

    ReplyDelete