Less company, less attention, less interaction for cats
Cats may try other tactics to get attention such as scratching furniture, toileting inappropriately, not using litter tray or toileting on the bed. These behaviours could be down to insecurity in their environment and/or separation anxiety. An easy solution is to try focused play/attention times. Start building in a routine morning and night for 10 minutes. Great bonds occur through play. It releases endorphins in cats (the happy chemical).
Plugging in a pheromone diffuser could also be used to help calm your cat. Pheromones are a chemical substance released by an animal, it triggers a social response in its own species; cats use smells to communicate. We have seen this when a cat rubs our legs, their scent glands on their cheeks put their pheromones on to us, giving them reassurance. They will sniff objects, the scent will tell them who and when was last there. If in their social group that’s fine, if not can make a cat nervous and it may need to increase its territorial behaviour. Cats have lots of different scent glands that release pheromones, around their face, chin, lower ears, forehead, and cheeks and around the mouth. There are also scent glands located in your cat’s paw pads and pheromones in their urine.
Your cat is now scratching the furniture. Cats are scent marking through scratching. Scratching is a natural behaviour for cats, and they need to be able to do this. It is essential for claw maintenance and it is also used as a territorial marker, leaving their scent from the glands between their toes. To encourage welcomed scratching, ensure you have a sturdy vertical scratch post and place this near where the cat prefers to scratch (if this is your sofa). Cats will not use a scratch post that will fall on them each time they use it. Some cats like horizontal scratching such as carpets. You can encourage them to use a cardboard scratcher and therefore limiting unwanted behaviour.
If you notice your cat is stressed, you could put the radio on while you are out or the TV keeping a constant noise in the background for the cat and perhaps drowning out erratic noises from outside or next door. The house was perhaps busier and noisy with working at home or home schooling and now it has gone too quiet. This could be a solution, to help keep a steady continuous sound for your cat.