This is NOT a cardboard scratcher that you lay on the floor for your cat. It is NOT. I remain somewhat frustrated by people giving one star and two star reviews to this and other products because they did not read the names or any part of the descriptions of items before ordeing them.. The product is clearly labeled as an EZ Mount Window scratcher: or the refills for said EZ Window Mount scratchers. If you look at the description at all (below the clear labelling of the product), it will describe them as cardboard refills for a window-mounted product, the pictures show them next to an average-sized cat, and the dimensions are given as 5 inches by ten inches. ** These window mount scratchers are great for cats who really love vertical surfaces (upright) to scratch on instead of horizontal ones (lying on the floor). ** They are great for cats who love the satisfaction of sinking their claws into cardboard and shredding it into tiny bits. ** They are great for families who love to see their cats going bonkers scratching on something they really love to scratch, that is actually what you WANT them to scratch on. Our cat who uses this one the most absolutely loves scratching cardboard, but she is a little small and light compared to our two behemoth black cats. She has had a very hard time figuring out how to stand her back paws on the scratchers that lie on the ground - to hold them still - and scratching like crazy with her front paws. They move around on her, flip over and startle her, and she generally avoids them. The other two cats like this window mount/vertical scratcher a lot, but they also love scratching the sisal rope ones, the flat cardboard ones, and carpeted (standing) ones. Our female uses this little scratcher more than she has used all the other scratchers we have tried, combined. (So, she refused to use it when I tried to get her to so I could take a picture.) There are a few drawbacks to this product, but for us, they don't matter a bit, and we still love it. 1) It is a one-sided cardboard "refill". When you flip it over, after they have wrecked the first side, there is a kind of thin "picture"-like cardboard piece glued over the back side. You can't pull it off. You can poke it with kitchen scissors and stab and drag them through it in a few places, to make 20+ "starter holes". Our cat who loves these will then paw at the mostly flat surface until she finds good purchase for her claws in a hole, then shred away at the second side too. 2) Because it is designed to be shredded to pieces, it does make a mess sometimes. The little bits they have pulled off gather on the floor and can get pushed into floor heat vents or whatever. If you have a ridiculous black cat, or a normal human baby, who will pick up anything small from the floor and see if it can be eaten, this is disadvantageous. If you seriously dislike sweeping - ever! - this is not the product for you. But a cat may not be the pet for you either. :-) 3) Because we have it mounted on the sliding glass door, when she scratches it really vigorously, it can sort of "thump" on the window a little and echo. If you are easily made anxious by weird noises, you also might not want this scratcher. It took us a while to learn to "ignore" the noise when she goes bonkers on it. For years, when one of our cats had made a noise like this happen, it had been a bad thing, and had usually meant something was going to get broken. All told, we love the EZ Mount Window cardboard scratcher, and will continue to order the refills (when I have tried to find them in local pet stores, they cost at least as much if not more; and half the time, the store doesn’t have any).
