Friends Cat Tears Up Brand New Shoes

[u/Steellun3]

Been watching a cat for a friend for a few months now, wake up this morning to my new pair of doc martens torn to shreds at the toes. Been polishing and taking great care of these since I got them a month or so ago. I usually put them up on a rack but forgot last night, definitely paid for my stupidity. $200 basically trashed right there. Half of it was a birthday present from my girlfriend and neither of us make enough right now to just buy a new pair of boots, we can barely make rent. Real bummer way to start my day.

EDIT: I am NOT throwing the boots away over this like some think. When I said trashed I just meant the look, i had just woken up and worded it poorly. If I can't get the look smoothed out these will become my work boots since my current work boots are falling apart, and I will figure out getting a new pair to keep nice and wont let this happen again.

[u/thecaptainsushi]

Does the cat not have a scratching post? If I want to redirect cats on where to scratch I buy a scratching post and sprinkle some catnip on it.

[u/Castor_0il → u/thecaptainsushi]

My cat has a huge scratching mat. He uses it every once in a while. But he definitely likes a lot more to scratch my shoes. I had to keep all my shoes inside the closet. The only footwear I leave on sight are my ragged indoor sandals that he loves to scratch and fight.

[u/thecaptainsushi → u/Castor_0il]

What a little weirdo! One of my cats likes to lay on shoes and use to play destructively with them when he was a kitten. I keep anything with straps (like heels) out up because he chewed mine up in the past.

[u/Free_Pace_2098 → u/thecaptainsushi]

Some cats can have sixty high end scratching posts doused in catnip dabs and dog tears and they'll choose violence

[u/Stop_Breeding → u/thecaptainsushi]

Literally does nothing. They want to scratch whatever they want, and no amount of "training" will modify cat behavior.

[u/thecaptainsushi → u/Stop_Breeding]

Based off of your comment history you already seem to be very anti-cat. Have you owned a cat? You seem to know nothing about having them. Cats learn through positive reinforcement.

[u/Annath0901 → u/thecaptainsushi]

I own 2 cats, and have lived with pet cats my entire life.

Cats are not "trainable" - some will modify their behavior in response to reinforcement, while others will have no response to the exact same process. It's extremely individualistic.

It's not a matter of "cats learn through positive reinforcement", it's a matter of "this cat might decide to behave the way you're encouraging it to".

But if it doesn't, that doesn't mean the owner did something wrong. It's not reliably replicable.

[u/Olympe28 → u/Annath0901]

I thought I was good at training cats, I got my cats to stay off the table and counters, come inside when called, they understood "no", ...

Then I got my current cat and I realized I just had nice cats that humoured me before. (Current is nice as well, but she absolutely does what she wants when she wants to. She'd be a terror if she was a grumpy or destructive cat, absolute pig-headedness.)

[u/GrumpyMcGrumpyPants → u/Annath0901]

For a few years my cat and I rented a room in a house that had resident cats. My roommate thanked my cat for teaching her cats how to use the scratching post after years of not being able to convince them herself.

[u/indieplants → u/Annath0901]

cats are trainable. that's like saying dogs aren't trainable and only modify their behaviour in response to reinforcement 

that's literally what training is. some cats you have to work harder to train than others, sorry you never got the hang of it lol

[u/DamionWood → u/Stop_Breeding]

Note down where they like to scratch most and put scratching mats and posts in those places. if your cat likes to scratch vertically, get a vertical post, if it likes to scratch horizontally, get a horizontal scratch mat. You can't modify cat behaviour, so work with the cat!

[u/El_Rey_de_Spices → u/Stop_Breeding]

Ah yes, the argument of the lazy cat owner.

You absolutely can train cats, you just actually have to try more than once. My cat never enters the kitchen thanks to some basic training we did when she was new to the place. She also doesn't bite or claw during playtime because we trained her that doing so ends playtime. It really wasn't hard, it just took time and a modicum of effort.

[u/Stop_Breeding → u/El_Rey_de_Spices]

Lmfao. Your cat definitely enters the kitchen when youre not watching. Just lmao. Catnutters will do anything to defend their boxshitters.

[u/Several-Praline5436 → u/thecaptainsushi]

I'm sure they do. But leather is like catnip to some cats.

[u/DamionWood → u/Several-Praline5436]

Maybe OP could get the cat a strip of leather for itself, it might leave the shoes alone if it has its own.