Help Stop Your Cat Scratching Your Furniture

Help Stop Your Cat Scratching Your Furniture (and Save Your Sanity!)
This one's for all us cat owners living in fear for our sofas and carpets!

Does your cat like to scratch your furniture? Its a common problem with lots of cats, especially 'flat cats' (not literally!) I mean of course cats who live in apartments with very little outdoor exercise.

Why do they do it?
Not, as people commonly think to sharpen their claws, but to clean them and keep them healthy.

Cats that have lots of outdoor exercise will often use your fruit trees - which can cause major damage to the tree trunk, indoor cats will use any suitable surface - your sofa, carpet, wallpaper etc. etc.
The thing with cats is that they're creatures of habit and they 'bond' with certain surfaces or items for their 'personal hygiene', so to save your trees, soft furnishings and sanity, the trick is to get them to bond with something more suitable and take action to protect your home.

Okay so a two-pronged solution:
Save your furniture - apart from shutting your cat out of
the house (no chance), declawing (illegal, in the UK, unnatural and very painful
for the poor cat), what else can you do?
There's a couple of things that spring to mind :

Furniture protectors - clear plastic strips that attach to the furniture. They provide a smooth surface so the cat's claws slide off, helping to break the clawing habit.

Claw Scissors - these are a small pair of clippers suitable for indoor cats, rabbits and so on. Clipping the ends of your cat's claws regularly won't worry the cat and will help save the carpets from those claws hooking in.

Provide 'bonding' material for your cat - Sisal scratching posts, pads and climbers. Sisal is a
tough material that can withstand constant clawing and provides the type of surface that cats like to use for their grooming. They're often impregnated with catnip and come with toys attached to encourage your cat to use them.

Just a small plug - You can , of course find all these things at Alphapetshop

Seriously though, I know from experience that ruined wallpaper and soft furnishings is no joke and can be very expensive. I have always clipped my own cats' claws to keep them in check and they're now 17 yrs old and are showing no ill-effects!