How do you Deal with Cat Hair?

I recently read a helpful article by Dr. Amy Wolff about how to reduce the amount of cat hair in your house, car, clothes and furniture. As I know from personal experience, cat hair can definitely cause allergies to flare up. Plus, who wants to sit on a couch covered with any type of pet hair?

Here are a few strategies that Dr. Wolff suggested for controlling pet hair.

Grooming - Keeping your pet well groomed is by far the most important step you can take in controlling the hair in your home.

Furniture - Decrease the amount left is to discourage your pet from getting on the furniture.  Give your pets comfortable beds or pet furniture and a specific place to lie. If your pet has already adopted a couch or chair as his favorite spot, try treating it with a fabric protector.

Carpets - Regular vacuuming will help remove most of the pet hair.

Clothing - Pet hair rollers and brushes with specialized cloth that will capture hair in the nap of the fabric. A fabric softener dryer sheet can also be rubbed over the surface of clothing as a pet hair pick up.

The Car - Draping the seat with a towel or sheet is the easiest way to prevent hair from working its way into the seat. If practical, keep your pet in a carrier when traveling in the car. It's safer and prevents shedding in the vehicle.

Shed-less Pets - If pet hair is still a problem, consider breeds that shed less than others or hairless breeds such as the Sphinx cat.

To read the full article, please click here.

Help for Reducing Scratching on Furniture (by Cats)

Furniture scratching is a frustrating behavior unwelcome by most cat owners. In the cat's mind, he is simply marking his territory or sharpening his claws. For you, he is destroying an expensive piece of furniture. There are a couple of ways to diminish this behavior. The easiest, though painful for the cat, is declawing. A more humane method, which I prefer, is behavior modification including the use of deterrents, periodic nail trims and training your cat to use a scratching post.

For more information on why cats scratch in the first place and several ways to deter cats scratching on furniture, please click here.