In the late 1990s Betsy Lipscomb, a cat behaviorist, cat lover and founder of SmartCat understood that people surrendered their cats to shelters because they didnt know how to change unwanted behaviors. She began gathering wooden fence posts from her farm in Wisconsin. She wrapped them is sisal rope and mounted them on sturdy wood bases. Her sole purpose of making these posts was to send them to pet parents who needed help with scratching behaviors. People were amazed to learn that the scratching post solved their problems. These posts became vastly popular and soon Betsy was making up to 50 a month by hand. Betsy decided that she wanted to start a company whose sole mission was to enhance our pets quality of life, by providing for their behavioral needs. She especially wanted to detour pet parents from declawing their cats, as it is a cruel procedure. With a lot of persuasion she finally convinced her husband, John, to manufacture a larger version of her homemade scratching post. The result was our flagship product, the Ultimate Scratching Post. Thus SmartCat began. From there the rest is history. In 2009 our company branched out to become Pioneer Pet Products. We did so to extend our quality designs and construction into a wider range of products. In 2012 we acquired the brand Sticky Paws. Sticky Paws is a tactile tape that detours cats from scratching unwanted surfaces, and keeping them out of harmful house plants. Sticky Paws fits right into the Pioneer Pet brand. It helps cat owners to tame behaviors in the home without taking away their natural instincts. pioneerpet.com smartcatlitter.com