[Mayzoo]

Mario and HIS cat play all the time. They run and wrestle constantly. We got her as a kitten and he just loves her to pieces. She is not and will not be declawed.

We did use essential oils and a squirt gun to train Marcy when she was younger. She learned not to scratch up the furniture, not to tear up my plants, and not to be on the kitchen counters. Essential oils, lemon-eucalyptus on furniture and on cotton balls in plant containers, are great for training cats to stay away from certain things.

We have cat scratch furniture for her, and I trim her front nails about every two weeks. I started doing this immediately and still mess with her paws throughout the weeks in between trimmings. My furniture shows no sign of cat scratching despite having a kitten in the house for the last 7 months. I bought the nail caps just in case, but have never used them since the other methods worked so well.

I let Mario and Marcy work out their "don't over do it" play tactics, and neither has ever harmed the other, BUT I will say they really do care about each other, so they do not want to harm the other. Mario and the cat are about the same size as well, so that helps I imagine.