When I got my first cat last year, I wanted to let him be an outdoor cat. Although I realize that pets are supposed to be tame animals, I like the idea of maintaining some semblance of their wild nature. Since he was going to be spending a good deal of time outside, I decided against getting him declawed.

As you can probably imagine, his claws came in handy for climbing trees and thwarting the attacks of predators, but they also wreaked havoc around my house. I encouraged him to use his cat scratching post, but he was reluctant at first. After some coaxing with a spray bottle, he soon developed a habit of using the post instead of couch.