have a cat? cats love sitting on the top of crate of records. it looks/feels just like that scratching pad you so desperately want them to use. they also love the height of having a couple of them stacked on top of each other. at least, mine do. i just so happened to have a bit of wood left over from a project that is 95% the width of the crates that i place on top. now, it is the perfect cat ledge, but now the stylus is the only sharp pointy thing that comes in contact with them.