Thank you so much, Evelyn, for your response. I absolutely love the idea of a log as a scratching base! We live in a rural area with over fifty trees on our property, Blackjack Oaks are constantly dropping branches, some of them very good sized, so it will be easy-picking to find a sturdy branch/log.
My husband had the idea of stapling several pieces of heavy-duty sandpaper to a 2 x 4. He has not had time to do that yet, but I did not think that solution would work anyway. I believe Opie's claws would shred that sandpaper no matter how heavy-duty it was.
I do have a question though. How did you clean the log? I mean, out here, we have a bad problem with ticks and I would not want to introduce them, or any other bad bug, to the interior of our home by busing them in on a log.
Maybe I can fill a 5 gallon bucket with bleach and water and soak the log for 24 hours, then set it in the garage to dry. I want to avoid chemicals, although I am sure that bleach is considered a chemical too. Sigh. Thanks again for a brilliant idea! 
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