‘My son trained our cat!’: Pawrent’s child ends months of feline destruction after teaching catto sibling to climb ladder instead of scratching wood

Author image for Laurent Shinar
Laurent Shinar • Writer and Editor
Oct 5, 2026 8:45 AM EDT

Cats are not a species that are all too well known for their trainability. In fact many of the anecdotes, jokes and jibes that surround feline kind are actually aimed at the fact that cats with their superior intellect have no interest in participating in training whatsoever. And it is hard to blame them for such a thing considering. But in this story we have a case of a kid who has managed to teach their cat to do something rather extraordinary while also deeplying pleasing his dad at the same time.

Whether it is kids or cats, parenting is no easy thing. Heck, when it is both kids and cats it is even tougher. On one side you have a screaming demon who is always demanding food and has no sense of rationality and on the other side…the same thing. Sure, they come in slightly differing variants but the results are very much the same in the end. So you can imagine how burned out this dad was when trying to cook up a plan to stop the family cat ruining the nice paint job on his kid's bunk bed. A behavior that he felt he would be unable to ever stop.

But what this dad did not realize is that it was never about stopping that behavior, but replacing it with a different one. Something that somehow his child managed to see and come up with a very creative solution. So the next time your cat child is kicking up a storm you might want to have a think about employing this seriously clever strategy. 
 

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  • 01
    T'm so proud that he taught our kitty how to do this all on his own!"
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  • 02
    So, I had recently gotten a new bunk bed for my 7 year old son. Ever since, my cat had been using the end of the bed to climb up to
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  • 03
    jump to the top bunk. He made a few little scratch marks. It was starting to get
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    on my nerves, I lamented about it every once in a while. I was trying to figure out what to do. Wrap it with some stupid carpet so when he climbs
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  • 06
    up he doesn't scratch the wood? Forbid him from going in the room? Ugh. Then one day while
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  • Daaaaang, well would you just look at that? A kid comes out of nowhere to solve the problem that a full grown adult could not figure out themselves. It is interesting because at the end of the day this dad was trying to change an outcome of this cat’s behavior instead of addressing the behavior. The kid who is likely being taught a lot about how changing his behavior can change the world around him figured he would just do the same for the cat. What a genius. 
     

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    Cheezburger Image 10667872000
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    in my son's room, the cat just walks up the angled ladder. I was amazed. Then my son pipes up and says "oh yeah, I taught him that!" Apparently for a few days, he had worked
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    with our cat by picking him up and "walking" him up the stairs to show the kitty what to do. I didn't even
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    Cheezburger Image 10667870976
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    consider this, and I don't know why. I've trained my cat to do a few things myself (like fetch for example)
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  • 12
    Now every time the cat wants to go up and down from the top bunk, he uses the ladder. I'm so proud that he taught our kitty how to do this all on his own!
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    blueballoon80 Leave it to a kid to come up with and execute this plan! You have a very smart and dedicated son!!
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  • Now, while this comment does come across like a joke, it kinda has some potential to it. After all, there are certain things you might be able to trick your cat into doing. For example if you manage to associate the action of picking up socks and putting them in the laundry basket with getting treats you might have quite the winner on your hands. You might also consider getting your cat to enjoy running and jumping on a microfibre cloth to wipe down the floors. Honestly, the potential is endless.
     

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    Soomroz Thanks. I am off to train my cat to do some house chores for me like cleaning, laundry, cooking etc.
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  • 18
    [deleted] Pet tax! I wanna see your smart kitty! And good on your son for being a pro- active pet parent!
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  • 19

    Watch Ko in action here:

    via slothyCheetah

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months scratching child ladder climb teaching destruction reddit story wood trained cat story feline sibling cat pawrents son catto
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