Cats and new furniture
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Anonymous
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I have a 7 year old cat I adopted from a shelter some time back. At the time, I had a crummy old sofa and so I didn't worry when the cat made a corner of it her scratching post. She still uses the actual post too -- but I think she just thinks the sofa is convenient.
Now I am getting a beautiful leather sofa. I know that it won't stay in pristine condition forever with pets in the house -- but I want the scratching post use to end. Any suggestions on how to discourage the cat? TIA. |
Anonymous
| Put a couple of new scratching posts at each end of the counch. If you know what she likes, get those. |
Anonymous
| My cats don't care for leather. You might be fine just with the change in texture. One of them tried it out once and never touched it again. The rest have completely ignored our new sofa. |
Anonymous
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Oh, I hope it will be so easy! The scratching post tip was exactly what I was thinking of trying too -- but maybe I will give the cat a chance first.
I will say that I now regret letting her get away with that. She was pretty easy to train to stay off the table and I have a feeling I could have easily trained her off the sofa originally. Hindsight is 20/20. |
Anonymous
| If Kitty shows interest in the couch, put some double stick tape on it--cats do NOT like sticky! |
Anonymous
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Catch your cat the first time she tries to use the sofa as a scratching post, then gently but firmly re-direct her to the real scratching post and brush her claws against the post to replicate her scratching posture.
When my (amazing & wonderful) cat was alive, I did this - he got the point right away and never attempted to scratch the sofa again. |
Anonymous
| My cat doesn't like our leather couch either. |
Anonymous
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Shoot her with water gun whoever she scratches
Do it surreptitiously so she doesn't know it's u |
Anonymous
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My cats scratched all my leather furnitures. They are partial to supple Italian leather.
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Anonymous
In one episode of "my cat from hell", Jackson Galaxy used a motion activated air can to blast a puff of air at the cat when he got close :lol? He also suggested placing scratching posts/ beds next to precious furniture so the cats have something to own as well. |
Anonymous
| Declaw cat. |
Anonymous
^^^NOT this.^^^ |
Anonymous
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I love the motion activated air can.
Use it for all sorts of cat issues. We use it to keep the cats out of the bathroom (long story, they started using the bathtub as a litterbox) Might not work for the sofa, unless you want the cat to totally stay away from the sofa. bonus is that when we make the puff of air sound the cats stop doing what they are doing. |
Anonymous
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I found a couple bits of advice that really worked for us when we got new couches.
We had about 3 scratching posts, and put one of them right in the middle of the family room, and the rest were out in the open too (as opposed to tucked away in a corner). It wasn't the greatest look, but for some reason cats are more attracted to the scratching posts if they're right in the middle of the room. Also, I put double sided tape on the most scratch-prone areas of the couch. Cats don't like feeling the stickyness. Totally worked. Our old couch was torn to shreds. Our "new" couches have been un-scratched for about 5 years now. |
Anonymous
| Oh, and eventually, we moved the scratching posts out of the center of the room and removed the tape, and remained scratch-free. |