This post is for the cat lovers, and people who are fans of my cat, Gypsy. Here she is hanging out on the window sill, enjoying some sun:

In our last couple of places, she always had things she could scratch her claws on -- a carpet, a sisal mat, heck, even our chaise lounge! But here, there is a whole lot of nuthin'. I bought her this little door mat, hoping she would take to it. I even sort of held her paw over it and scratched it, like, "See? Scraaaatch." But she just walked away and looked at me like, "What's your deal?"

Then several times a day she was scratching at the doorways, as if she were trying to literally climb the walls. I had sort of half heartedly looked in some pet shops for scratching posts, but it wasn't until I saw some punctures in our leather couch that I realized girl really needed to scratch those claws.

So online I went, and found a really good deal on a 60cm tall scratching post with a little mouse dangling from an elastic. The funny thing is that she had NO interest in the mouse, or the scratching post, until I replaced the mouse with a real fur mouse -- the only toy that she has ever actually played with in the 3 years we've had her. All of a sudden she was attacking and scratching that post like nobody's business. Our walls and furniture can breath a sigh of relief. Here's the killer in action: