Scratching furniture

[crapmemory]

I am about to get a leather suite but am a bit worried that my son's kitten will scratch it. Can any of you suggest a way I can stop him if he does? I have got 2 scratch posts already!

[toby99]

Apparently, if you shout at them and scare them off when they scratch they get excited and that is why they keep coming back for more. If you can, 'they' say to get a water gun and spray the cat each time it does it, without saying a word. If you keep at it they eventually give up. Our last suite got scratched, but our new one hasn't been touched - they were both fabric, but I don't know what the difference was. Does anyone know if cats prefer to scratch leather or fabric?

[madboutcats]

cats hate the sound of foil so if you can bear living with bacofoil wrapped furniture for a while it should help. we used foil on the walls as cats kept scratching wallpaper and it worked a treat.

[mesmerred]

Cats like certain fabrics which exercise their claws. So they go for velour, mats, wallpaper, hessian, tree bark. They are therefore not so keen on smooth surfaces and yours may not touch the new suite. However I would go for the water spray just in case. Another useful thing is to hiss loudly at them, or use a harmless aerosol near (but not at) them as that also sounds like an angry cat.

[Jenny Tools]

Keep it out of the room.