Cat Steven had a habit that really irked Pearl: her tendency to scratch things. She was a nice cat and never scratched people, or the Gems (not that being scratched would hurt them much), or other living creatures such as Lion or Pumpkin, but everything else seemed to be fair game. Cat Steven would scratch the sofa and damage it, she would scratch at Steven's mattress and damage it, and she would sometimes scratch the floor after eating, as if intending to dig a hole or something, but this only left scratch marks on the nice wood floor. Cat Steven also scratched at the wall, as if trying to pursue and catch something.
Connie said cats had many reasons to scratch, such as sharpening their claws, marking their territory, or a simple cry for attention and stimulation. Once, when Pearl caught Cat Steven scratching the wall and meowing, and Amethyst, who had taken her purple cat form, was also scratching the wall and meowing.
Pearl groaned.
"Oh, Amethyst, please don't encourage her! You're both starting to leave claw marks on the wall!"
Amethyst the Cat just snickered.
According to Steven and Connie, some people took their cats to the vet and had the claws removed so that they wouldn't scratch anymore. However, the kids said that this was apparently a very painful and cruel thing to do to a cat, especially cats who went outside a lot, such as Cat Steven. Claws couldn't grow back, and without claws, cats couldn't defend themselves.
Garnet was horrified when Steven and Connie gave her this information, and she couldn't see any futures where her cat would be happy if declawed. Even Pearl was appalled. Though the scratching was annoying, she didn't want Cat Steven to be hurt.
Steven thought the best thing to do was get Cat Steven a scratching post, or perhaps more than one scratching post, just to be safe. He, Garnet, Amethyst, and Pearl each chose and bought a scratching post and took it home. They were mostly identical scratching posts, just with different colours: Steven bought a pink one, Garnet bought a red one, Pearl bought an off-white one, and Amethyst bought a purple one. When they arrived at home, they each set their posts on the floor for Cat Steven to inspect. Surely Cat Steven would like at least one of them.
"Garnet," Pearl said, "what is the probability that Cat Steven will use one of these scratching posts?"
"Very low," Garnet said with a slight smirk.
And sure enough, Cat Steven walked past all four scratching posts, ate some food from her dish, and began to paw and scratch at the floor.
"Maybe we should have bought more of a variety of scratching posts," Steven mused.
"I don't understand you at all, Cat Steven!" Pearl said to the cat in a scolding tone. "We've bought you four things that we're willing to let you scratch, but you don't want anything to do with them!"
Cat Steven merely gave Pearl an innocent expression and mewed.
"If C.S. doesn't use them, I will!" Amethyst declared. She turned into a cat and scratched at the post she had bought. "Ah yeah, feels good!"
