This is Jana from Daly City, California. Thanks to you, I can keep my wonderful cat. I wanted to thank you for the information you gave me a few months ago that helped me manage my 1.5 year old female Maine Coon's clawing of furniture and rugs. The clawing is now down to about 5% of what it used to be, and I am grateful, because I don't think I could have kept her unless I found a way to handle this problem.

You told me that cats are very tuned in to odors. The way I understood it, you said that my cat is actually spreading her scent when she is clawing something. You also mentioned that she needs to have new smells in her environment for stimulation.

I keep coconut oil in my home, and I had a thought that perhaps I could use the scent of the coconut oil to communicate to her that I don't want her to scratch on the furniture or the rugs. So I spread the coconut oil in these areas, and she immediately avoided those areas completely. I used to have to spread more oil every couple of weeks, but now I don't spread any oil at all, and now she scratches her scratching post! Perhaps once a week, at most, I catch her clawing the rug a little. However, she does it much less aggressively than before, and I don't see any evidence on the rug of her clawing. I have not seen her claw the furniture at all since I used the coconut oil.

So, thank you, and I look forward to calling you next time I have a cat challenge.