# Hi, new here and I need to save my walls...



## 3lakes (Nov 8, 2008)

I have a kitten about 6 months old, we got her when she was around 8 weeks old. She has always been a bit of an odd ball cat! She thinks she is a dog. We have a mini doxie and a chi who the cat is best friends with. The 3 of them play, eat together, drink together, sleep together, bathe each other. The cat licks, pants and growls. It is quite comical and my 2 year old daughter adores her kitty. The cat lets my daughter push her around in strollers and they chase each other around. She doesn't shed (well, minimal shedding) she is overall a very good cat, very affectionate, not to mention beautiful. So my question is; EVERYDAY sometimes 10 times a day (no exaageration) she will jump, grab on 3 to 4 feet up the wall and slide down with her claws IN the wall. She does this in the hallway, in the bedroom, anywhere. She looks up and meows this awful meow, flicks her tail, then jumps. My walls are being destroyed. The scratches in the walls aren't going to be easily painted over either, some are half an inch deep.

She has 2 scratching posts both with hideouts, one small and one tall which she uses everyday. She plays with the dogs and anything else she finds that sparks her interest (which is anything). Why is she doing this? It started about a month ago. 

We had a cat, who we lost  shortly after my daughter was born. He tore up the trim and baseboards throughout our last home. I let that go, but I can't let it happen again. Our home is only 4 years old and I am steady painting and redecorating, it is all being ruined....oh....and, she climbs the curtains in our bedroom to our patio doors. When the sun shines through them all you can see is BILLIONS of tiny holes. When we moved in here a year ago our dogs suddenely forgot they had to pee outside, it has taken up to now to re-housetrain them (still with the odd accident) so our carpet is garbage. I can't have a cat destroying everything that the dogs can't reach. Does anyone have advice?


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## marie73 (Jul 12, 2006)

Keeping your cat's nails trimmed should make it very difficult to damage the walls, or even to dig in as you described. My cats do that to the walls, not the jumping up part, just standing up with paws against the wall, sliding them down, which is weird to see, but they don't dig their nails in. It looks more like a stretching exercise when they do it. 

And I took all my curtains down. It's just plain fun for a cat to climb on the curtains.

With my older two cats (adopted as adults), they just didn't do anything wrong. The twins more than make up for that. I've found little teeth marks in my blinds (my landlord's blinds!), they've broken a couple of blinds completely off, torn up a bit of rug in their room, etc. I think it's the same as kids, you just have to expect some damage. You don't blame your toddler when they break a dish or knock over juice on your beautiful carpet, they don't know any better. Same with our little furry kids.

I think clipping the nails will solve your wall problem - they even have "soft claws" which cover the nails.

It's so cute that she thinks she's a dog. Have any pictures of this you could post?


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## 3lakes (Nov 8, 2008)

I always thought that if you trimmed a cats claws they would scratch that much more to sharpen them up again. I will try trimming them today, its worth a shot. Thanx.

I tried to add a few pictures but the files are too big.


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## marie73 (Jul 12, 2006)

I think "outside" cats may do that. Good luck, looking forward to pictures.


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## Heidi n Q (Nov 22, 2006)

3lakes said:


> EVERYDAY sometimes 10 times a day (no exaageration) she will jump, grab on 3 to 4 feet up the wall and slide down with her claws IN the wall. She does this in the hallway, in the bedroom, anywhere. She looks up and meows this awful meow, flicks her tail, then jumps. My walls are being destroyed. The scratches in the walls aren't going to be easily painted over either, some are half an inch deep.


  My cat Toby (1995-2007) would do that, though he wouldn't dig his claws in and slide all the way down, he'd just leave light claw marks up as high as he could jump. He mostly did this in the master bathroom with the wall dividing the shower from the tub. When I'd see him crouch and cry as he looked up the wall, I'd lift him up by the haunches as high as I could. He thought that was the greatest! I know, not helping you much...

Another of our cats pees on bathroom rugs so the bathroom doors are always kept closed unless we are in there, so Toby didn't have much opportunity to jump the walls. I have a small 4-claw mark on one side of the wall, about 5' up. There are other light scratches I will spackle over when I re-paint, but I'm going to leave the 4-claw mark unspackled.

Ideas:
Buy a very tall cat tree so your kitty has something she can REALLY leap up, sink her claws into and climb to the top. To help focus her vertical energies in this direction, discourage her leaping on the walls by using double-sided wide sticky-tape at the height/spot she leaps and places her paws. Cats don't like the feel of 'sticky' on their paws.
*question* Is your cat jumping on flat walls or in doorways or room divider walls?

I know this is frustrating, wish I could be more helpful...
Heidi


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## ~Siameseifuplz~ (May 6, 2007)

I agree with the cat tree idea, redirect to the tree after interrupting her before a jump. Also make sure she is getting lots of play time each day so that she is not simply trying to find something fun to do. If she has certain spots she does this you could try some things, one would be putting double sided tape or even better the "sticky paws" you put on furniture over the spot where she hits so she will have an unpleasant feeling when she touches the wall. I have also heard of putting up laminated posters (not paper, make sure they are laminated) in the spots so that the cat can not sink the claws in and therefore it's no more fun. This only works if the cat is doing it to climb and scratch, if she's doing it because jumping is fun then it might not help.

FYI: Clipping nails is a great idea to help lessen scratching behavior. Cats don't actually scratch to sharpen their claws but do it to (for lack of a better word) "freshen" them. A cat sheds layers of her claws, when the claw layer (called a sheath) becomes old it gets loose but is often stuck under the skin around the nail (which I would call a cuticle if I had to guess) and the cat scratches to pop it off and reveal the new layer. this is also why you'll see them gnaw on their tow nails and look like they are trying to rip off their toes.
So clipping the nail will not increase the likelihood of the cat scratching. Actually I notice that when I clip the nails many of the old sheaths will come off so the cat is actually less likely to scratch, at least for that reason.


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