District 70

District 70 is a Dutch brand that makes cat scratchers out of corrugated cardboard and treats them as furniture rather than pet equipment. The name comes from the brand's own observation that a cat spends roughly seventy per cent of its day asleep or settled in one favoured spot - its district - so that spot may as well be something you are happy to have in the room.

What the range is

Everything here is a cardboard cat scratcher. District 70 states that the pieces are made from 100% recycled corrugated cardboard, handmade, odourless and assembled without toxic glues, and that they arrive ready to use with no assembly.

• Scratch-and-play pieces - Puzzle, Snake, Whirl and Spy each combine a flat corrugated pad with a ball running in a closed track. The ball cannot be removed, so there is nothing loose to swallow.
• Loungers - Arch is a simple curve at 60 x 28 x 20 cm; Rocking is a deeper curve that moves under a cat's weight; Hexa is an open hexagonal frame a cat can lie inside.
• Caves - Sardine is printed as an open sardine tin at 60 x 30 x 30 cm and is reversible, which District 70 says roughly doubles its life. Can is an opened tin can with two entrances at 36 x 40 x 38 cm. Trunk is a cut tree section with bark and growth rings printed on it.

Getting a cat to use one

Position decides whether a scratcher works. Put it where the cat already scratches - beside the sofa arm, across a doorway, next to where it sleeps - rather than where it suits the room, then move it a few centimetres at a time once the cat has committed. Rub catnip or silvervine into the corrugation and finish a wand game on it. Never carry a cat over and push its paws at it; that reliably puts a cat off for good.

How many, and what to expect

One scratcher per cat plus a spare, and mix horizontal with vertical - a cat given only one orientation finds the other on your furniture. Corrugated cardboard sheds, so expect to vacuum around it. And in District 70's own words, no scratching furniture is indestructible: it is meant to be scratched, so its condition changes as it is used. Normal wear is not a fault, and District 70 covers manufacturing defects for 30 days.