Cat Keeps Scratching My Furniture!!

Spray her with water. Keep a water bottle close by, any time she scratches the couch spray her. They don't like it.

I would try a scratching post, one with catnip in it or put catnip on it. Praise and pet her when she uses it. Gently stop her each time she scratches anywhere else. You don't say how old your cat is. The younger the cat, the easier to teach new behaviors.

Over the last 20 years or so I've had four housecats, only one has been trainable not to scratch the furniture, towels, curtains, etc. and us. So the other three were eventually declawed and we were all happier after.

Take the cat out of the home

Please don't declaw just for furniture. I would try some of the suggestions below - aluminum foil, tape, spray bottle, trimming the claws, scratching post, and soft claws if needed. Right now, she has no other place to scratch and she really needs something, maybe even a cat tree. Once all those other things are in place, there is a pheromone called Feliway. It is a plug in and is supposed to help relax cats. You can also talk to the vet about other options.

When we got married the cat came wit the hubby, even though I'm allergic. She didn't like the competition and we came home from the honeymoon to find she had gone to town with our new sofas. Sigh. A used double-edge razor and a lot of patience later, I shaved off all the loose strings.

Luckily, we had bought cat-proof furniture whenever we could - sofas with thick dark upholstery (no white silk couches alas) and bedspreads that could be put in the wash and could not be picked at easily. We also covered the living room furniture with washable dog blankets (sold at Target) to protect them from hair, tucking the excess around the cushions like a sheet.

To prevent further damage I placed clear packing tape on the edges of the sofa and armchairs that she liked to scratch. I also discovered cats hate smells and perfumes - I sprayed the couch with "Samsara", a stinky perfume an ex had given me. Worked like a charm (try any perfume you don't love).

We also placed scratching pads made of cardboard (sold at pet stores) sprinkled with catnip in every room. They are better than the carpet ones which are too similar to regular carpet (I didn't want to encourage "carpet confusion")

Getting rid of the cat was not an option. I researched declawing but after reading how traumatic it was (similar to cutting off the tips of your fingers) and how cats find soft smooth surfaces to pee on after the procedure (meaning your pillow and such), I scrapped that idea. After ten years, the damage was kept to a minimum using these little tricks.

And I won a bet - my uncle was giving the marriage 6 months, "either the cat or me", we hated each other so. We learned to coexist peacefully till the end.

Cats will usually pick one spot to scratch and will stick with that. We have the same problem with our cat. He's big - OK, he's HUGE at over 30 lbs and doesn't fit on most cat scratchers, etc.

He chose the carpet on our bottom stair. So annoying, but the vet said if it wasn't there, it would be somewhere else.

You can purchase deterrent sprays that have an odor not pleasing to the cat to prevent them from getting to the sofa. The cat will pick somewhere else to scratch, though, so keep that in consideration.

Get a spray bottle and fill it with water. Set it to a long straight spray.

Spray the cat every time you see Zoey about to scratch or during scratching..

You already got some good advice, so let's see what I can add. Please, please do NOT declaw!! My cats are scratchers, but have NEVER done the furniture (I'm lucky, I know). You can find used cat scratchers (trees, tunnels, etc) at any "recycle" store (goodwill, thrift store, etc), and those cardboard things may work too. Put them in any rooms that your cat spends a lot of time in (I even keep one in the hallway for when they're waiting for me to get out of the shower or bed). The catnip is a good idea, although my cats prefer fresh (you can get seeds and grow your own, or buy small plants at a pet store)--just rub it between your fingers, and wipe all over the scratching toys. Keep the nails cut (check them weekly or bi-weekly)--I just use a small nail clipper (with lots of practice), and have only cut to the quick one time. I'd try all of these things with the furniture you have now until you break the habit. Sometimes a different type of material may discourage them (both of my parent's cats are sofa scratchers, but they will NOT touch the leather sofa or micro-suede recliners). You could buy small pieces of different fabrics (at a craft or fabric store) and put them in your cat's favorite places--see which ones she won't touch...
That's all I have for you...
Good luck!

Try a scratcher, make sure to have a vertical and a horiztonal one. Some cats will only scratch on one or the other. The cardboard ones are great for the horizontal ones especially if you sprinkle a little cat nip on them. We have several cardboard ones around the house and also one large scratcher. Two of our cats love the big one, even though the salesperson told us they might play on it for a week or two, and we have had it for about 5 years now and they still run up and down on it and use the wood, rope and carpet on it to scratch.

Also if you trim Zoey's nails that will help, since cats tend to scratch less if you keep their nails shorter, since a large part of what they are doing is pulling off the outer layers to the new sharper inner layers. If you haven't ever trimmed nails before, it may sound a little scary, but is really pretty easy. For cats I like the small scissor type ones and to start with just do a couple of nails at a time and let her go. With cats you can usually see the blood supply pretty easily that you don't want to cut. I'm sure if you google cat nail trim of something similar you can find pictures.

Soft paws are another option, they are little plastic coverings that go over the nail. So she can still scratch, but it won't do any damage, but I would say only use these if she is indoors only. They do need a nail trim before applying and you can either put them on or most vets will do it for you. Some cats will leave them on and you end up taking them off at the next nail trim as you trim them and other cats may remove one or two here and there. Just make sure you keep and eye on them and they don't start getting close to the pads, since it is possible for them to grow in if they don't fall off. I've used these when our one was ripping up carpet and after wearing them for a couple of months, 2 sets of nails, she was leaving the carpet alone and we left them off.

You could try a scratching post, but our cat never liked them. This may sound silly, but it works. If you tape aluminum foil to the corners of your couch, the cat will leave it alone. Cats hate aluminum foil. Or get a spray bottle of water and spray the cat when it scratches. If none of those work, you may want to think about declawing. Good luck. Cats sure can do a lot of damage!

whatever you do, please dont declaw. It's cruel and painful, and depending on the age of your cat, she may never recover emotionally. They dont just remove the claws, they remove the toes and it's terrible for them.

That being said, they make little claw covers you can buy, some cats let you put them on, others dont.

I have had great success with a combination scratching-post and catnip spray. Buy a scratching post made of rope or wood, not of carpet, and place is RIGHT NEXT to the object that your cat likes to scratch. Spray it liberally with the catnip spray (if your cat doesn't like catnip, they make other pheromone sprays as well), and then place some catnip at the base. Watch carefully. If the cat goes to scratch the furniture, pick it up and place its paws on the scratching post. Then praise the cat a lot when it scratches the post. This is a training process, so it may take a week or two for the message to sink in. You might also be able to spray a smell the cat doesn't like near that furniture, but be careful that you don't spray it while the scratching post is near it or it may have consequences. Also, keep your cat's nails clipped short (if you don't know how to do this, ask your vet to show you) so that she cannot do as much damage when she scratches.

I personally don't have any problems with declawing, but there is a lot of research that shows that cats declawed after kittenhood have an increased likelihood of refusing the litterbox. My cats are both rescues - both were adults when I adopted them. One was already declawed (and she does have litterbox avoidance problems) and the other was not. I DO have a problem with taking the cat out of the home to save your furniture. What kind of person does that? We tried the little claw-caps for a while with our cat, but honestly, they didn't work for us. My cat was able to get them off within a day. Training has been the best solution for us. Good luck.

We just bought new furniture 6 months ago and my cat has tried to do the same thing,ughhhh... We keep a spray bottle by the couch and as soon as he jumps on the arm we squirt him... Or try double sided tape...

Another suggestion: put tape on your couch, sticky side out. Cats don't like that.
check Doctors Foster Smith catalog for other deterent products.
When we got a new couch, I ordered extra fabric. Then I used upholstery screws and put another layer of fabric on the corners. After my cats died, my mom sewed fabric patches on the spots they scratched and you can hardly tell.