Noah's Mommy, my cats didn't know what the scratching post was for and were very afraid of it. I remembered my old cat going nuts when I brought back Valerian from Whole Foods (like cat nip), so I opened one of those capsules and spread it over the post. They fell in love and still are. They forgot about the couch and are very happy scratchers now. They sleep on the post (I've got it laying on the floor), sit there for hours, head-butt it.