--- title: A kitten at home: litter trays, scratching posts and play — a lesson of Mova's school · trees and pragmatics description: «A kitten at home: litter trays, scratching posts and play», a lesson of the biology course of Mova's primary school, sentence by sentence with dependency trees and pragmatics. It begins: A kitten is a tiny hunter in training. --- [Mova](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/) · [this page in HTML](https://mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/biology/327-a-kitten-at-home-litter-trays-scratching-posts-and-play/) [home](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/) / [corpora](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/) / [school](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/) / [Biology](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/biology/) / A kitten at home: litter trays, scratc… # A kitten at home: litter trays, scratching posts and play Lesson 327 of the biology course of Mova's primary school: 18 sentences, each with its syntax tree and pragmatics. The lessons are written for Mova, and their agreed trees are part of Mova corpus 0.4 (CC BY-SA 4.0). How Mova does on its tests: [the lesson at school](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/school-run/biology/327-a-kitten-at-home-litter-trays-scratching-posts-and-play/). - [0](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/biology/327-a-kitten-at-home-litter-trays-scratching-posts-and-play/0/) — A kitten is a tiny hunter in training. - [2](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/biology/327-a-kitten-at-home-litter-trays-scratching-posts-and-play/2/) — Most of its strange habits have good reasons. - [3](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/biology/327-a-kitten-at-home-litter-trays-scratching-posts-and-play/3/) — It buries its poo so enemies cannot smell it, scratches to clean its claws and leave scent, and kneads your jumper the way it once kneaded its mother to make the milk flow. - [4](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/biology/327-a-kitten-at-home-litter-trays-scratching-posts-and-play/4/) — Picture a kitten halfway up the curtains, mewing: its claws curve backwards like hooks, so they grip well going up but not coming down head first. - [5](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/biology/327-a-kitten-at-home-litter-trays-scratching-posts-and-play/5/) — Left calm, it usually works out how to back down, like a person down a ladder. - [6](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/biology/327-a-kitten-at-home-litter-trays-scratching-posts-and-play/6/) — A good home gives a kitten a clean tray, a tall steady post, safe toys instead of string or hands, high places to escape a dog, and indoor life until it is vaccinated, neutered (given a small operation at the vet's so it cannot have kittens) and old enough. - [7](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/biology/327-a-kitten-at-home-litter-trays-scratching-posts-and-play/7/) — Cats bury their poo by instinct, and kittens learn the tray by watching their mother; a common rule is one tray for each cat plus one extra. - [8](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/biology/327-a-kitten-at-home-litter-trays-scratching-posts-and-play/8/) — Scratching pulls off old outer layers of the claws and leaves scent from glands in the paws, so a tall, steady scratching post is needed. - [9](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/biology/327-a-kitten-at-home-litter-trays-scratching-posts-and-play/9/) — String, thread and ribbon must never be left lying about, because a kitten can swallow them and get badly hurt inside; wand toys with feathers are safer for play with a grown-up. - [10](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/biology/327-a-kitten-at-home-litter-trays-scratching-posts-and-play/10/) — A kitten pouncing on feet under a duvet is practising stalking hidden prey, and using toys instead of hands and feet stops it learning to bite people. - [11](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/biology/327-a-kitten-at-home-litter-trays-scratching-posts-and-play/11/) — All kittens are born with blue eyes, their eyes open at about one to two weeks, and their real eye colour shows from about six or seven weeks. - [12](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/biology/327-a-kitten-at-home-litter-trays-scratching-posts-and-play/12/) — Most cats have 18 toes, five on each front paw and four on each back paw, and cats walk on their toes. - [13](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/biology/327-a-kitten-at-home-litter-trays-scratching-posts-and-play/13/) — Some cats have extra toes, and Ernest Hemingway's old house in Florida still has dozens of cats, many with six toes. - [14](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/biology/327-a-kitten-at-home-litter-trays-scratching-posts-and-play/14/) — A kitten has 26 baby teeth and a grown cat has 30, and the baby teeth fall out from about three to four months. - [15](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/biology/327-a-kitten-at-home-litter-trays-scratching-posts-and-play/15/) — Cat claws curve backwards, so they grip well going up but not going down head first, and cats come down trees backwards. - [16](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/biology/327-a-kitten-at-home-litter-trays-scratching-posts-and-play/16/) — Kittens stay inside until they are vaccinated, neutered and old enough, because outside there are cars, dogs and fights with other cats. - [17](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/biology/327-a-kitten-at-home-litter-trays-scratching-posts-and-play/17/) — Kittens knead their mother's tummy to make her milk flow, and many cats keep kneading all their lives when happy; cats purr when content but sometimes also when hurt or scared. - [18](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/biology/327-a-kitten-at-home-litter-trays-scratching-posts-and-play/18/) — A kitten and a dog should meet slowly, first by smell and through a gate, and the kitten needs high places to escape to. - ← previous: [A puppy at home: the first weeks](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/biology/326-a-puppy-at-home-the-first-weeks/) - next →: [Old pets: grey muzzles, slow walks and saying goodbye](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/biology/328-old-pets-grey-muzzles-slow-walks-and-saying-goodbye/) - ↑ back to [Biology](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/biology/)