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<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"No, it is not the sink.<\/p>\n
When I first brought Hope home, I bought her a scratching post. You know, one of the kinds that is covered in carpet. Hope couldn’t have been less interested in it. I sprinkled cat nip on it, and that seemed to get her attention … but she was not going to the scratching post<\/i> to do her business. She ignored it completely, and set about tearing the shit out of my bathmat, my rug, and my sweaters which hung over the back of my desk chair.<\/p>\n
I was at my wits’ end.<\/p>\n
I wept about it.<\/p>\n
I pleaded with Hope.<\/p>\n
I cajoled. I would pick her up and go place her right next to the scratching post, and put her paw on it, trying to give her some subliminal hint, like: “You know that scratching thing you do? Do it here!” But she would look up at me with confused and vaguely contemptuous eyes, like: “Lady, why are you manipulating my paw like that? I have no idea what is going on, and please remember: I don’t speak English<\/i> so you’re just BABBLING as far as I’m concerned.”<\/p>\n
A month or so ago, I dropped Hope off at my cousin Kerry’s. I had to go out of town unexpectedly and had no idea when I would return home. Kerry welcomed Hope with open arms (this had been Hope’s second sleepover).<\/p>\n
When I finally came back to New York to pick Hope up 7 or 8 days later … I walked into Kerry’s apartment and saw Hope lying on a torn-to-shreds cardboard scratching post. Only it was more like a scratching runway<\/i>, lying horizontally. Hope was surrounded by carnage. She looked satiated, insane. Her claws gleamed sharp in the sunlight. I was amazed. “I gotta get me one of those!”<\/p>\n
So I did.<\/p>\n
And yes, my apartment is now a shredded-cardboard wreck that I have to continuously sweep up … but Hope is obsessed – OBSESSED – with her cardboard runway, and actually yowls if I pet her while she is on it, or go to try to pick her up. “Noooooo noooooo please do not separate me from my true love!”<\/p>\n
She has no more interest in tearing up my bathmat or my carpet (although she is still VERY interested in swallowing entire Netflix envelopes whole) … and goes to TOWN on her cardboard runway. Tyra Banks would be so proud. Sometimes she just perches on top of it, haunches tucked underneath her, like a watchful Cornish hen.<\/p>\n
But yeah. I would say, from the look in her eyes, and her body language, that the new scratching post is a success. I’m almost embarrassed for her. I want to tell her to hide her heart a little bit more, to not show her passion for the cardboard scratching post … at least not so openly … because she might get rejected. Save a LITTLE something for yourself, Hope!<\/p>\n
Hope ignores me.<\/p>\n
She is happy.<\/p>\n
\n<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
No, it is not the sink. When I first brought Hope home, I bought her a scratching post. You know, one of the kinds that is covered in carpet. Hope couldn’t have been less interested in it. I sprinkled cat … Continue reading