Slinky has well and truly settled in now. As Paul says, he’s gone from cautious kitten to delinquent teenager, testing our limits and control with destructive behaviour and the occasional nip. The cat-deterring citrus spray I bought doesn’t appear to deter him from scratching once the smell dissipates after a few minutes. Fortunately he really doesn’t like being sprayed with a spray gun. Unfortunately we can’t be around all the time and catch him being naughty.

He’s still very playful and will curl up in my lap in the evenings. The Towering Inpurrno gets plenty of action, though it has evolved a lot since we first made it.

Slinky considered the furry lining something fun to rip off, so that came out. He also didn’t seem to recognise the jute covered tubes as something to scratch, and while he’d play with ping pong balls or rope run through them I eventually figured they were better put to the purpose of being an alternative nail sharpening surface to the sofa bed, carpet, clothe’s dryer, etc.

We have, however, realised a great deal of play potential in the simple addition of a rope fed through the centre of one of the barrels. He’ll actually pull it out one end until it stops, then race around the other side and pull it the other way again.

To turn the tubes into a new scratching post, we used a box left over from when we made the magazine rack, side table and vinyl album holders. After a bit of drilling, sanding, varnishing and tying on with rope offcuts from the macrame owl we had this:

Now we just have to convince Slinky to attack this rather than the carpet and furniture.