The Cat Owner’s Survival Guide – Wicker Furniture Edition

Wheee!!! Cats will be cats!! (Image from Cats Fine Arts)

If you are a cat guardian, you have certain issues you have to face, such as irreplaceable family heirlooms and collectibles. Basically, what you have to ask yourself, is do you want to keep them safe within your possession to pass on to future generations, or do you want them to be knocked off wherever you have them on display to be smashed into a kaleidoscope horror of a million pieces of whatever fragile material they are made of onto the floor the split second your cat becomes distracted by a flying moth?

When you are a cat parent, the choices are pretty basic and all of them require one key ingredient – common sense. Either you put items that you don’t want broken in a cabinet that a cat can’t get to; you don’t put them out at all and keep them in storage; you don’t put them on a shelf or mantle that your cat can, and will, access; you buy inexpensive decorations that can be held in place with museum putty so that you don’t fret if they get broken; or you save your money and don’t buy the item in the first place.  Cats will be cats and you may as well get used to that fact if you want to share your home with them. This avoids a lot of anguish in the long run and allows you and kitty to enjoy a long and stress-free relationship.

That being said, let’s apply that logic to wicker furniture. You are a cat parent and you see a beautiful wicker chair you think would be just perfect for your living room. Keeping the common sense rule I shared just moments ago, along with a handy visual aid to follow, I will just add this one simple fact: Cats like to scratch. Need I say more?

So never mind that chair. I think the real issue at hand is writing my follow-up post entitled “Cat Parent Goes Shopping to Buy Fabric to Recover a Wicker Chair.”

Peanut and wicker chair

Yes… Great job Peanut… Thanks a whole heck of a lot!

All kidding aside, this actually brings up an important point – it is normal for cats to scratch. It keeps them happy and healthy and should be encouraged. Make sure you have plenty of cat scratching posts and scratching options available for your feline friend and with a quick bit of positive reinforcement you should have no problems with your furniture! And to be fair to Peanut, she was just an innocent bystander – this chair is old and was scratched up long before Peanut was even born – back in the days when I did not have common sense and did not provide my cats with proper cat scratching products.

If you would like more information on why scratching is important for your cat or recommended cat scratching products, please read these informative posts:

Scratching the Surface on Declawing Cats and Trying to Uncover the Reality of Martha Stewart’s Opinion on the Controversial Subject

Workout Your Cat in Style with the Kitty Treadmill Scratcher from Royal Cat Boutique

A Game of Katris and Mouse – Cat Scratching Furniture that is Fun and Practical

hearts

On another note – we are so thrilled to announce we have won a Pettie Award for “Best Designed Blog” and will be honoring Abandoned Pet Rescue with a $1000.00 donation!! We thank all of you for your votes and support and will be sure to do a much more detailed post in the days to come!! Congratulations to all the nominees and winners in the other categories as well – everyone deserves a big round of applause!

Loved this article? Share it with your friends!
spread the love!

Click to join the conversation

  1. Ingrid King says:

    I’ve never had wicker furniture and never even thought of it as the purr-fect scratching surface for cats! That is quite a work of art your cats created, Deb!

  2. Ingrid King says:

    And congratulations again on your Pettie!

  3. Connie Marie says:

    Great article! My wicker left a piece at a time! I was afraid they’d swallow a small piece. Thry chewed more
    than scratched! I switched to stuffies, Lou Rankin, an popular pricey line and they love those so I share. Did I mention we also have a 7′ by 5′ breakfront ans an English desk? Nothing thats not taped down is safe!
    When Richard was a baby he loved dropping things to watch me pick them up. My cats are the same!
    There’s only a few things I really miss tough, it’s all just stuff. I can totally relate to Layla’s peeed on post too!
    CONCATULATIONS ON YOU WINNING!!!!!!!! IT’S WONDERFULL!!!!!! YOU DESERVED IT!!!!!!! YEA!!!!!!

  4. Connie Marie says:

    Was my last comment to big?

    • Deb says:

      LOL Connie – no, your comment was not too big!! I enjoy hearing from you and appreciate you taking the time to comment! 🙂 Thank you also for the congratulations – your support means the world to me!!

  5. Wendy S. says:

    OH yes, wicker furniture…pffft! been there, done that, no longer. I realized like yourself that cats basically rule the house and therefore we can either put up with the damage or get rid of the dangerous temptations to begin with. I’m so happy that the Abandoned Pet Rescue won…Thank you SO much, Deb for making it all happen : )

    • Deb says:

      You got it Wendy, no point in trying to battle the obvious!! I prefer to love my kitties and have them feel comfortable living with me without me constantly getting stressed out by them being themselves!! Thank you for the congratulations!

  6. Marg says:

    Yup, if you have cats, you are not going to have nice furniture. The furniture here is in little pieces and no sense in getting any more. Cats do love to scratch especially if they stay inside all the time.
    A big congrats to you on winning the Pettie. That is great.
    Take care.

  7. Brian says:

    We don’t have anything wicker but it does sound pretty wicked!

  8. Congrats on your Pettie!

    That poor wicker chair really got worked over, MOL. I have a few things that I have to keep away from the kitties, but mostly I don’t worry about stuff.

    I KNOW you have photos of your kitties in boxes — well, we are having a Cats in Boxes photo contest and would love for you to enter!

    • Deb says:

      Thank you Julia! I took a look at my vast library of cat photos, and believe it or not, we actually don’t have any cat in boxes photos!! Crazy, huh?!! If I can catch an image between now and when the contest ends, I will send you an image!

  9. Oh. My. Cod.
    I WANT a chair just like that!!!
    ; ) Katie

    …pee s: WOOT WOOT CONGRATS!!!!!!! We are SO happy for your big Pettie WIN!!! Nip all around. : )

    • Deb says:

      Katie, you fall into the same category as Sparkle. As Cat Ruler of the World, I demand that your human get you a chair befitting of your title!! Thanks for the congrats!!

  10. Congrats again on your Pettie win! We have tons of wicker but nothing as well used (and loved) as yours.

  11. Da tabbies o trout towne says:

    We be surfin low tide two day Z & Z and canna commint bout de chair coz we can no longer see de post but we can say conga rats two ewe for winnin de way kewlest sooper dee signed blog two kittehs ever made in de histree of cats makin web designz. This is total lee awesum and we iz bee yond happee for ewe and we hope ewe all get sum trout outta this N enjoy yur party. ..uh… week oh end !! Conga ratz onze again. This rocks !!!!
    And pleez eggs cuze R spellin coz we is tryin ta type on a cell u lar dee vize…. wait… we all wayz spell like this 🙂

    • Deb says:

      LOL, you always make me smile, Da tabbies o trout and it is quite a talent writing and spelling the way you do!! I’m sorry you can’t see the chair – it really is a funny picture! Thanks for the great compliments on the blog design too!

  12. CATachresis says:

    Many congrats on winning, Deb. I am so glad one person I voted for actually won 🙂 Anyway well deserved!

    We say our furniture is post cat shabby chic, with the emphasis on shabby! It saves time and explanations 😉

  13. Congrats on your Pettie!

    I wanted to buy a beautiful leather couch when I had Sweet Praline and moved into my house a few years ago, but I thought better of it, even though she never scratched the furniture. I’ve also learned to put breakables in cabinets or out of reach once Truffle and Brulee came to live with me!

  14. Sparkle says:

    I keep hoping my human will bring home a wicker chair for me – I think it would be really fun to play with! And concatulations on the Pettie award for your blog design! I also liked your blog post in the Blog Post category – if I hadn’t had to vote for myself everyday, I would have voted lots for yours!

    • Deb says:

      Sparkle – that is a grand idea and I think you should demand a wicker chair. You are a very famous cat and author and it really should not even be up to debate any longer… Thank you for the concatulations!! Your article was great too – they are were, actually!! So much talent – really wish we all could win!

  15. Our mom can’t get mad at us when we break one of her things, or ruin something…she knows that it’s her own fault.

    Congrats on your well deserved Pettie!!

  16. Penelope says:

    What a great post!
    Concatulations for your Pettie! We loves your blog and we did votes for yous.
    Mommy loves you post! She has seen what cats can do! And me, purrsonally has distroyed 4 sofa sets in the 12 years me has lived with thems!
    one of which was supposed to has industructable fabric and another was leather!
    me would loves to try wicker! me is very impressed with the artistry in the photo!
    kisses
    nellie

    • Deb says:

      Oh Nellie!! You sure did make me laugh…. 4 sofa sets??!! That sounds like a challenge for other cats!!! Wicker is a lot of fun and we think the chair looks just purrfect!!!

  17. First of all me and mom want´s to shout YAYYYYY ,
    ConCATulations to the Petties Award !!!
    Here in MY house the thing´s that mom and dad don´t want to be smashed when I (as ju say) for example chasing a mot is behind glassdoor´s 🙂
    The furnitur´s is not clawfurriendly , but I have tree different kind´s of scratchingpillars , one is on the fridge , one is about 1 meter tall and THE BEST is from floor to roof 🙂

    • Deb says:

      Kjelle Bus – it sounds like you have some very SMART humans in your house!!! Glad you have lots of great scratching pillars to keep those claws nice and pretty!