Cat House and Condo

My children were having a great time setting up their new kitten's cat house and condo. My kids are 11 and 13 but I was still sure to keep an eye on them and what they were doing. It is important that all parents understand that if they get a pet for their children that they the parents are ultimately responsible for the life and well being of the pet. One problem that we had with our new kitten was skin scratching. Young kittens must be taught to be respectful of skin although this can sometimes be a difficult task to accomplish. Part of the reason it is difficult for kittens to understand that they shouldn't scratch is that this is one of the ways that cats communicate. Besides growling, hissing or snarling when angered or in danger, some cats begin nipping or batting with their paws, either with claws extended or retracted. This can be a dangerous activity with cats who are improperly socialized or that do not know their own strength, as a cat scratching with its claws can result in inadvertent damage to human skin. Along with the cat house that my kids set up they also got a scratching post for their new kitten. What we tried to do was not discipline the kitten for scratching but rather to bring it to the scratching post and encourage it to scratch there and then we rewarded it when it did. The problem with disciplining a cat for scratching is that it is an inbuilt action that must be performed and so to scold it for doing something that is part of a feline's nature is not fair or humane. Thankfully nobody got scratched up too badly although I also had to make sure that my kids understood that if they played roughly with the kitten it would react in like manner.