https://ibb.co/s2KL6vp here’s a picture. Hope this helps

Good news: Its easy enough for any homeowner to fix. Bad news: Kiss your weekend goodbye:

1.) Cut off any loose peices

2.) Skim coat with drywall compound, make sure the mud apllication extends past the torn paper at least 1 inch.

3.) Let it dry

4.) Sand drywall compound with drywall sandpaper(its a mesh)

5.) Repeat steps 2-4 until you get a uniform, even surface

6.) Paint over the new drywall compound with a primer or primer + paint. A primer seals the fresh drywall which, otherwise, would absorb several applications of regular latex paint making a long job, even longer

7.) Paint with a latex paint of your choice.

8.) Do whatever you need to do to get those cats to not do this again.

THANK YOU SO MUCH!!!! I haven’t been able to find anything online, I really appreciate it. Since it’s near their food I’m thinking of just putting a back board behind it. Thanks again

I see missing paint, but it is hard to tell from the photo how deep the damage is. It looks like it is deeper than the paint layer, so it might be best to replace the drywall in that section because it might be difficult to smooth it out enough to apply paint.

If the surface is still fairly smooth but the paper is ripped off, you could try applying something like Gardz to seal the surface. This will make it easier to skim coat. Then prime and paint.

Edit: you can also do this without Gardz but plain brown paper will suck the water out of your compound mixture and it will make things more difficult.

Keep their nails trimmed too. I adopted an older cat a while back and the previous owner had gotten its claws removed which I thought was a bit extreme but I quickly figured out why. He has a habit of scratching the walls, even with no claws he still does it. I can’t imagine the damage he was doing. You can also get little caps to put over their claws too.

Luckily it’s just to the brown part of the drywall if that makes sense not too deep camera is messing with it

Do they flick their food about? That may be why. Or have they trained you to react when they do it?

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Just make sure you put some drywall compound and paint to seal up the exposed drywall core before you put the wood paneling down(not a bad idea btw...). It doesn't have to loom pretty. Otherwise you're likely to get mold, moisture and maybe swelling. Latex paint does a lot to ensure the longevity of the drywall in your home.