We recently got a new cat, an 8 month old female, who'd been living with a
foster after being rescued from a barn. She's a very, very sweet cat and we
haven't had any trouble with her, except she doesn't use the scratch posts
we have.

We bought a large climbing tree with carpeting on it, we also have a
cardboard scratcher (this is what my other cat prefers) and we bought a
third scratcher that has sisal rope around it. She won't use any of them to
scratch on, but she does scratch the carpet.

How can I teach her to use one of the substitutes? I've tried putting her on
the cardboard and the sisal ones, and rubbing her front paws on them, so
that she might get the idea that this is the motion she should be doing, but
it doesn't seem to be working.

I'm kind of hoping she'll watch my other cat and get the idea...