How to Make a Simple and Cheap Cat Scratching Board.

Recently we bought a Tonkinese kitten; our kids named her 'Cuddles'.

The shop assistants in the pet store must have realised we were complete ignoramuses when it came to cats. Whatever they told us we needed for her happiness we bought.

We came away with a scratching post that would almost have doubled as a tree house for the kids, with several different levels for the cat to sit on, and some lovely bamboo-ish looking posts for scratching. We bought a lovely bed made of leopard print velour with a canopy over the top which we were told she needed for security. We also bought balls, sticks with feathers, soft mice - we walked out of that store with almost as much as when we shopped at Babies R Us in preparation for the arrival of our son.

Most of it has been a waste of money. Cuddles doesn't like scratching the bamboo posts, plus the tower is really heavy to move around the house.

So my husband made Cuddles her own scratching board using nothing but a short plank of wood about two feet long, a square of carpet and a staple gun. He folded the carpet wrong side out around the wood and used the staple gun to attach it. Cuddles loves to scratch the reverse side of the carpet which is like loosely woven hessian. It's so light you can move it all over the house, and she will use it while it's lying down flat, or propped at an angle against something else. You could even make several of them for different areas of the house.

Her favourite toy isn't any of the things we bought from the pet shop. What she really loves are jewellery pouches (please excuse my spelling for jewellery, but that is how we spell it in Australia). You know those little satin bags you buy jewellery in? They slip and slide all over the floor. She loves to slide them around, bite the string of the handles and pounce on them.

Her other favourite toys are rolled up balls of aluminium foil, which I know is a popular trick for cat owners.

And the bed we bought her? She prefers a wicker document basket that she found in the study. Now that's her bed, lined with a pair of my daughter's flannel pyjamas.

My advice as a new pet owner to other future pet owners - take a look on Hubpages and other sites for the ideas and money-saving tips of experienced pet owners before you visit the pet shop!!

You will need:

• a piece of old carpet
• a thin plank of wood
• a staple gun

Trim the wood, or the carpet, so that the carpet and wood are the same length (ie. so no wood will be showing when the carpet is wrapped around).  Fold the carpet, wrong side out around the wood, so that it meets.  The side of the board with the join will be the reverse side.  Using your staple gun, staple the carpet onto the board.