Cat jail

Like humans, cats now and then will do something they shouldn't just to get attention. Our cat, Leo, is prone to this. Now and then to get attention, he'll scratch something he shouldn't. He's been persistent at this but we have reduced the likelihood it will occur by hustling him off to cat jail when he does it. This is fairly easy to do because he only behaves badly in this way when he knows he'll attract our attention.

Cat jail in our case is a cage that we bought for our dog when he was a pup and have almost never used. We keep it in the basement, and when Leo does something he shouldn't we pop him in for 20 minutes or so. He hates being locked up.

Our other two cats rarely do anything wrong. The male, Twinkles, began scratching our bedroom door occasionally in the middle of the night but a couple of trips to cat jail broke him of the habit. Our female, Gem, always behaves well and has never been in cat jail.

Point is if your cat misbehaves, place it in a type of cat jail--a bathroom works well, too--so it learns that such actions will result in some unpleasantness. Like children, cats need to know what they may and may not do.