First of all, thank you for not declawing your cats. I assume you have researched the procedure and understand that it involves much more than the removal of claws. It is, in fact, amputation down to the first joint of each toe, comparable to the amputation of each of your own fingertips down to the first joint. Declawing is not only a painful and completely indefensible surgery, but it may very well end up causing more problems than it solves. Declawed cats sometimes experience permanent, chronic foot pain that results in rejection of their litterboxes. Then you're dealing with cats who end up soiling all over your house for the rest of their painful lives. Some cats who are declawed also become insecure and defensive, resorting to biting as a "first strike" mechanism at inappropriate times. Sure, there are plenty of declawed cats who don't develop litterbox avoidance or biting behaviors, but why take that chance with your own healthy, happy felines? Furniture is replaceable, but you can't replace your cats' amputated toes if the cats develop post-declaw behavioral issues.

OK, that covers the reasons why declawing shouldn't be considered a reasonable or advantageous option. Now to the scratching thing.

Here are a few options you havent' mentioned trying yet:

1) Provide a variety of scratching surfaces. Some cats prefer to stretch up when they scratch and like tall, vertical scratching surfaces. Other cats prefer to stretch out when they scratch and will enjoy horizontal scratching pads. Different cats like different surfaces: corrugated cardboard (a favorite around my house), sisal rope (another favorite), natural wood (draws them like flies - esp. firewood with the bark still on it)), carpet (NOT in favor in my household), fabric (also NOT favored here). Try as many different orientations and surfaces as you can find. With five felines in your household, you're bound to be living with different scratching preferences.

2) Buy a package of loose catnip leaves and rub them generously into all acceptable scratching surfaces to inspire feline activity.

3) Buy a roll of very sticky, double-sided carpet tape and tape the areas on your furniture where the cats have been scratching. Cats HATE getting their paws sticky, so they will avoid the taped areas. Once they have been successfully and reliably deterred from the furniture and redirected to their own scratching surfaces, you can remove the tape.

4) If the cats still refuse to leave your furniture alone, buy some "Soft Paws", little plastic or rubber caps that you glue onto their claw tips so they can't cause damage to furniture.

5) Buy cheap furniture that can be replaced as necessary.

6) Abandon the folly of "training" cats. Make peace with the fact that you are now a slave to five felines. Such is the joy of living with cats. :-)

Laurie, who is happily enslaved by 14 of the beasts

Laurie!

Thanks so much for your thoughtful response! I'm with you 100 percent on all the reason why declawing is not a viable alternative. I've done some research on that and almost cried! I love them too much -- even if they make me crazy -- to cause them harm.

It did not occur to me that different cats prefer different scratching surfaces/inclines/directions, etc. Duh! That is great advice and I'll put it to use and look into the corrugated cardboard and other materials you suggested, as well as the catnip rubs. Funny about natural wood... I've noticed that the girls especially love to scratch at the new doors and other woodwork that I've not gotten around to staining/finishing yet.... hmmmm....

And, I had to laugh out loud at the "folly of training cats" .... something inside me just knew that was the case, but oh, heck... I've always been the boss.... not anymore.... A slave I am, indeed. Not that I'm complaining. The happiness they bring is well worth it.

All the best to you and your 14!

Yasmin

Yasmin,

Another word of warning. Do NOT allow any of your cats to see the computer monitor when you are reading this thread. If they get wind of the fact that you implied they could be coerced into doing "tricks", you may find yourself suffocated in your sleep! LOL!

I noticed the allure of natural wood quite by accident. When we first built our basement, we positioned tall wood braces inside the basement while we backfilled outside. After the job was complete and the masonry had had adequate time to set and cure, we started removing the braces. By that time, though, I noticed that the cats had started using them as scratching posts. The basement wasn't going to be a finished space anyway, so I just left one of the braces down there for them. It's been down there for 11 yrs now, and they still love scratching on it.

As far as being the boss is concerned, I'm definitely top cat (and top dog and top horse) around here. Most of my days and nights are spent catering to the needs of my 4-legged family, but when discipline is necessary, everyone knows who MUST be obeyed. I've learned, though, to pick my battles. I'd make myself insane sweating the small stuff like furniture. The bigger issues, though, like bullying and temper tantrums, get dealt with in no uncertain terms. When Mommy bellows, "HEY!!!", everybody stops doing whatever they were doing until the culprit is identified. Mommy reigns supreme! ;-)

Slave, Dictator, they both fit.

Laurie

Always a comprehensive response from Laurie! Yasmin, I want to just mention that the corrugated cardboard scratchy boxed are THE preferred scratching surface in my house. I had the same problems that you do until I discovered them 10 years ago. Get the double wide scratchy boxes, and as Laurie said, rub them with catnip. Put them in the areas where the cats are now scratching on the wrong things and they'll move to the correct surface. With so many cats, you'll learn that you should not buy certain types of upholstery or rugs. You need tightly woven fabrics, and orientals with very little nap or the cats will scratch at those too.

My cats love the corrugated scratchies, too. Seem to like the fact that they can stand on them while scratching. I've never had a cat that took to an upright scratching post, and I've had 15 so far.

They do scratch our living room rug once in a while and the top of just one upholstered kitchen chair. I can live with that. We early on decided to let them "have" certain things they wanted to scratch and make unpleasant noises or hand citrus peels in mesh bags to wean them off the things we wanted to protect. It has been a good compromise.

I used to foster kittens and they all preferred the tall (at least 5 ft.) tree/condo with the stand wrapped in sisal rope. They never bother my furniture as long as I had that.

Laurie........prefect, funny description of who rules! lol It's the same in my house.

Training cats isn't impossible. I have clicker trained cats in the past. My two current cats have claws and have *never* scratched my furniture or carpets. I grew up with cats, but my family always just assumed they were cats, and cats would scratch things. My mom just replaced her furniture *again* because she still lets the cats do what they want.

My cats don't eat until they scratch their post. When I'm dishing out food, they automatically run over to the post and start scratching away. They have a Purrfect Post, so it's large enough and sturdy enough for them. They don't seem to go for the horizontal scratchers, so I don't have any more of them, but a lot of cats prefer those.

I don't free feed my cats. Food comes from humans, and there are perks to doing what humans want. We make a fuss over the cats and give them treats whenever they use the post. It was absurdly simple with these two because these rules have been in place since we got them (and they weren't kittens when we got them). They know food comes from a combination of people and the scratching post, so they always scratch the post, presumably, in hopes of getting fed.

My clicker trained cats had already destroyed furniture, so I had to overcome bad habits. Clicker training isn't hard at all, and one of my cats practically turned into a circus animal with the tricks she learned. She was a piggy, so very motivated to learn new things. Her son wasn't so food-motivated, so I didn't bother teaching him anything but scratching on command.