My cat Leo is an avid scratcher. Since he's an indoors cat he doesn't get that natural nail trimming that outdoors cat do from walking on rough surfaces like rocks or gravel. That means he needs some cat scratchers to keep his claws trimmed and healthy.
About 1,5 years ago my uncle bought him a small cat stand for Christmas that has some scratchy poles. He loves that little thing so we placed it close to the balcony windows where he likes to sit and watch the birds fly by. It also has an elevated platform with a soft surface. He loves anything soft.
Over time he has scratched this thing to death. The ropes are falling off and it's starting to look real raggedy. Where the ropes haven't fallen off they are starting to get so rough that his claws doesn't grip them anymore.
Now many people would maybe just go out and buy a new one but not me. A new one would cost something like $30-$50 but about $6 of materials from the hardware store and an hour of labor will see this thing as good as new. So I did that!
As you can see from the pictures below this thing is raggedy. It was definitely time to do something about it so my lil' man can keep on scratchin'.
The material list is incredibly short. You literally only need:
As for tools you only really need the glue gun. I like to dismantle the cat stand to make it easier to work with and for that a tool set is handy. I also like to keep a hand vacuum close to vacuum up all the dust and rope debris that comes off as I go. There's gonna be a lot of that.
As mentioned this is an optional step. I find that the poles become easier to work with when they're loose.
It also allows for some extra and easier cleaning of the platforms. I used the hand vacuum to clean up the platforms. This almost completely filled up the vacuum chamber from the get go. I should definitely do that more often.
You can see my dismantled cat stand above.
Completely remove the rope that's damaged and loose. In some places where the rope was tufty I just trimmed it or shaved it a little with a scissor instead. No need to remove rope that can still be scratched!
Get your brand new ropes out and start gluing it on there using your hot glue gun. I always do a full strip of glue all around the pole for the first round. From there on out I apply a 1-2cm strip every third of the way around.
I make sure to apply the glue so that it touches both the rope and the pole. This way you glue the rope not only to the pole but also to the rest of the rope. I feel like this makes it sit firmer and tighter.
As I make the rounds I make sure to keep the rope tight all the way around as well as pushing the rope downwards and tugging on it every full round to make it tighter. Just keep on doing this all the way to the end.
Just keep going until you've replaced all of that scrappy rope. Your scratching poles should be looking real dapper when you're done.
Now your cat scratcher should be looking as good as new. A quick minute to put it back together and this was the result. Looking a lot better than it did just an hour ago.
The king himself had to approve of course and after a little round of sniffing the new rope he was quick to test his nails on them. Great success!
If your cat has scratched his scratchers to death I recommend you get out there and buy some sisal rope and some hot glue. That way you'll fix them up in no time and at a fraction of the price of buying a new one!
If you have limited apartment space like we do you can actually make a cat scratcher out of a table leg. I did this about three years ago when we first got our little Leo. The process was pretty much the same with an added step of wrapping the leg in some filt first to protect it from the hot glue.
Below you can see the table leg scratcher when it was brand new, after three years of heavy use and after it was removed. As you can see the table leg is perfectly intact without showing signs a cat scratcher was ever there thanks to the layer of filt.
All images in this post are taken by me.
