SANDPOINT — After observing the behaviors and instincts of his cats, inventor Fred Ruckel saw a problem that needed a resolution.

“They were scratching, hiding, hunting, grooming and sleeping,” Ruckel said in an email to the Daily Bee. “The scratching led to damaged furniture, grooming and sleeping led to more fur on couches and thereby more fur on clothing when you sit down.”

In an effort to solve the problem, Ruckel and his wife, Natasha, invented the Ripple Rug. The invention, he said, takes all of that into account and provides a single place where “cats can be cats and not be in trouble.”

The Ripple Rug consists of two small rugs, one atop the other, attached together by velcro. The top rug, designed to “ripple,” is also full of holes, creating tunnels for the cats to explore, scratch, pounce, stretch and sleep.

Ripple said his second quest was for the Ripple Rug to be 100-percent USA made and, third, for it to be made with recycled materials to better the environment while enriching the lives of cats. “To date we have recycled over two million plastic water bottles making Ripple Rugs,” he said. “Making it in the USA is costly, three times the cost of the same thing in China, however we can proudly say we put food on the table for Americans and help them to put their kids through school to better all our futures.”

There are as many as 100 workers at 10 companies, in four states, working on the Ripple Rug project, Ruckel said. It is on Amazon’s “best seller” list, as well as the most wished for and second highest gift idea.

The product launched in 2015, though it has not been without some difficulty. In 2016, Ruckel began to notice his sales were nowhere close to anticipated numbers. Then, in early 2017, a friend of the Ruckels told them his accountant had seen their commercial on TV, but wondered why the product was being advertised under a different name. The Ruckels had not, in fact, aired a TV commercial.

Ruckel had spent a number of years sidelining as an I.T. forensics specialist for hire by attorneys, so he began his own investigation, uncovering a company built to sell bootlegged products of all kinds. The battle, outlined in an article on entrepreneur.com, was just beginning as the Ruckels filed a lawsuit and a legal battle ensued over the next year. It was January 2018 when the couple ultimately won the lawsuit after the parties agreed on a settlement.

Ruckel will be this month’s guest speaker via Skype for the Inventor’s Association of Idaho meeting, where he will discuss his inventive journey and his new book, “AS STOLEN ON TV.”

The IAoI meeting begins at 5 p.m. Wednesday at Forty-One South, 41 Lakeshore Dr., Sagle. The meeting is open to inventors and aspiring inventors, though seating is limited. For questions or information, contact William Hertzberg at [email protected].

Mary Malone can be reached by email at [email protected] and follow her on Twitter @MaryDailyBee.