A little while back it occurred to me: The cats aren’t trying to scratch the crap out of the couch or their scrating pads anymore.

Last September the wife and I became parents to two little black and white sister kittens. They were, as kittens tend to be, playful, rambunctious, curious… scratchy. At the slightest provocation the little kitten claws were out and embedded in whatever had grabbed their attention. We’ve had cats before these two and we know that cats just love to scratch and destroy things, especially couches. To help mitigate some of that kitten vs. couch aggression we purchased a bunch of cat scratch pads and had one in almost every room in the house.

Early this year we had them spayed and their front claws removed. Hate us if you want to, but like the Vet said: “It’s better they lose their claws and have a home than be thrown out after a couple months because all the furniture is shredded.”

Well I noticed recently that the cats were completely ignoring the scratch pads.

They were also completely ignoring the couch.

That made me wonder. Is it really instinct that drives cats to sharpen their claws? Or is it in fact a reflex. If it were a cognitive function in their little cat brains then wouldn’t they still be trying to sharpen their phantom claws? Is the instinct even cognitive to begin with?

I’m thinking that there must be some stimulus response in the claw sheath in their paws. When the claws become more dull it must irritate or send some feedback to the cat head which says: “Sharpen! Destroy Couch!”

Actually. This whole thing reminded me of an episode of Radiolab (one of the coolest radio shows EVER). If you don’t have this on your podcast subscriptions you need to slap yourself, and then go put it on your podcast subscription. The specific episode I’m thinking of is episode #204.