Good morning,

I have my old cat since now what? 11 years. When I got her, she was already a calm adult. She was also de-clawed. Now I don't want to start a polemic over this topic since I didn't have a say and she was already like that when I got her.

So all those years with her gave me lots of experience with a cat but not on how to keep your furniture in good shape with a cat with claws.

Any tips would be appreciated. How do you keep the cat away of the couch or chairs? Or how to take care of their claw in a cat friendly manner to keep your couch intact?

Buy a scratching post and cover it in catnip.

My leather couch survived my cat. When she was younger she tried to climb up the back of the sofa and nail the sofa "ears". We used a mixture of objects with cat repelent on the sofa and some harsh punishment to teach her clawing leather bad, clawing school backback ok.

She eventually learnt, then got too fat to climb up the sofa.

We also kept her nails "groomed" (she screamed more while cutting the nails than taking a bath though...).

How about these?



Only in America

So cute. A possible business expansion for Coconut?

In my experience it is not possible - a choice has to be made, especially if your cat does not have the chance to climb trees, etc.

When I first saw a declawed cat in the US, I was nearly sick at the thought of the pain. I realise it was not your choice Nil - but it is NOT and NEVER a solution and should be totally illegal.

This is sick.

he he - I looked at those for my cat but, even though she is a girl, they look far too ponsy and she would have to be seriously sedated in order for them to be applied.

So, plan B, as mentioned above, was a cat scratching post, liberally sprayed with Catnip. Mine is even strategically positioned next to our leather sofa and my cat loves it and has never touched the furniture.

A bit weird, yes, but a much more humane alternative to de-clawing.

Agreed - but my cats like to climb trees! Imagine the first time they tried with those

Our cat pretty much ignored our leather sofa when we bought it. there a re few claw marks from hre "freak out" moments, but no deliberate scratching. then again, we do have a scratching post/bed and she can get outside whenever she wants.

Our cats have had a fortune spent on them. 2 Climbing trees, several scratching posts etc etc.

However they have STILL managed to reduce a leather chair to shreads

I think applying Catnip to them is the answer, to get them interested. When I put it on my cat's scratch post she went crazy - nuzzling it, rolling over and playing with it, before finally scratching her claws on it.

You'll never know before you get the cat and the sofa. we have 3 cats with free access to outside, scratching posts indoors too. 2 older cats have not scratched anything they shouldn't. Third one has managed to scratch actual massive holes in most of the walls in the house! So you'll never know. (I would recommend a smaller breed than Norwegian from that perspective as well).

I don't neccessarily think leather is a favourite for cats, but as someone else said, it depends a lot on the cat. Our previous cats never seemed to go for any furniture, this new young cat has so far not attempted to savage any furniture on purpose. His favourite is the door mat, that is the only thing i have seen him clawing. you really can "train" cats away from things they are not allowed - they do seem to understand "no". Of course, unlike dogs, they also seem to choose whether or not to listen!!