There is really no hard and fast rules on what cats like to test their claws on. In order to preserve your furnitures, it is best to get a scratch board ready. But sometimes the cats just prefer your furnitures to all those imported fancy pancy scratch contraptions! So I guess, one just have to turn a blind eye.

The mat-like thing is made from sisal ropes material. The advantage is it is wide enough for most rotund cats, and the texture is finer compared to the original sisal ropes, so the cats find it more enjoyable to scratch. However, at the moment only Mera seems to use it. It doesn't leave much debris on the floor.

I had bought several wooden board bound with sisal ropes, the cats obliged me, but their hearts were not in it. A scratch post bound with carpet material is too costly for me to do this experiment. But by theory, cats like to scratch carpets. I had seen Mera and Hat did it.

Speaking of mat, I found the IKEA doormat made from seagrass an all time favorite. All the cats like it, and they play hide and seek with it. I suspec the smell of the seagrass resembles catnip, hence those exurbent reactions.

They love the ocassional cardboard boxes for a different scratching sensation. And they can chew the boxes at the same time. You can lay out a big piece of cardboard for them to surf around in. Or a box big enough for the cat to curl up in, they love to have a nap in a box, no doubt it looks very uncomfortable to us humans. I don't know, cats just love cardboard boxes.