Cats depend, for a large part, on their sense of smell to deal with every detail of their everyday life—to communicate, for identification, to determine sexual status, and to establish and identify territory.

Compared to people with an average of 5-20 million scent cells lining their nose, cats have about 67 million. Cats also possess scent glands in the pads of their feet and in between their toes.

Scratching an object creates visible marks and leave behind the cat’s scent. A cat will scratch on a specific object in the presence of another cat to let the other cat know that he owns the object.

Cats which have been declawed also go through the motions of scratching. Prime targets of scratching include posts or walls near doorways, near the litter box, sleeping areas, etc.

Bringing your pet cat to a Neptune Beach vet regularly is an important responsibility of a pet owner. There’s more valuable information about pet care on this website.