I know kitten claws are a special kind of sharp (and yes, clipping the very tips will reduce the damage) you might want to try a good saddle-soaping, and see if the leather is 'shredded' or just scratched.

every surface other than tile has an issue - if it doesn't show claw marks, it collects hair.

this is why most pet owners develop a sense of humour about stuff - and the fussier ones have slip covers on their cushions when they're not home.

glazed leather is your 'best' bet, I favor ultra-suede because cat fur brushes off it nicely. most forms of upholstery just aren't sturdy enough - and trust me, pulled threads on a brocade couch looks way worse than scratch marks on leather. really heavy canvas is ok, but the colors are limited, and a lot of it's meant for outdoor use.

Tough one--every cat seems to have different preferences. I suggest waiting until she calms down a bit before investing in something new. Clipping the tips really does help and doesn't hurt kitty a bit. If the cat is really mellow you can even file them.

If she's not actually scratching at your sofa and just snags it as she bounces along, you got a good one! Kittenhood is wild but brief. Cathood is gentler on furniture if you don't have a scratcher!

My parents always had upholstered sofas, aka scratching posts with seats, which led to my childhood cat getting declawed in front (sad, and something I won't be doing to my baby).

Leather is actually pretty cat-friendly. (Most) cats don't seem to want to scratch it, and the hair cleans off easily. Whether or not it gets torn up seems to be a matter of the individual cat's habits, and perhaps how active the cat is. A friend of mine with multiple cats, including older kittens, got leather couches; they were pretty well scarred in a matter of months. The cats were always chasing each other across the furniture, and I believe one of the cats sometimes tried scratching on it. DH, on the other hand, had no scratches on his leather recliners from his older cat. Then I got a kitten, and we found a few snags. She seems to jump around more vigorously and uses her claws when landing or pushing off. Now that she's over a year, though, she's calmed slightly and seems to mostly ignore the leather, just like DH's old cat did (unless there's human sitting in it, that is). At least, I haven't noticed any additional scrathes.

My brother's family has 4 cats, and their microfiber sofa set seems to be holding up pretty well, too (but then, I don't look too closely).

Congratulations on your new baby! I know about this problem very well.

The best fabrics for cat houses (I intended that...) is a hard smooth cotton chintz. Next best is cotton velvet, and then microfiber/ultrasuede. Anything coarse with a large thread is doomed. Goodbye, beautiful linen....! As noted, leather holds up well with proper care.

You can use Sticky Paws double-sided adhesive strips to keep her from getting in the habit of working on the spots you most want to protect, but it may not be safe for good leather. The label will tell you. Cats like edges and corners best.

Get your vet to show you how to clip her claws correctly, and then get in the habit of keeping them trimmed. She'll still need to scratch, but not with such sharpness and frequency.

When you catch her scratching the wrong thing, very gently take her little feet and move her to the thing you want her to use. Some people say shout "NO!" - but I can promise you that it will only make her avoid you and not care what you want. The gentler you are with her, the more she will cooperate with what you want.

And lower your standards a little bit! Cats are cats, and declawing is really ten little amputations of the last joint of their fingers. They need to scratch to work the muscles of their shoulders and front legs because they are climbing animals and need to be strong. Some cats who have been declawed are fearful and tend to bite, because they know they can't use their natural defense of climbing to escape.

(Way more than you asked. It's my character flaw....)

Definitely saddle soap the current leather sofa and see if that doesn't improve the "scratches" into mere "character lines" that are the precursor to "patina", which all great old leather can develop. Leather IS the best choice for about 90% of cats, even though that 10% that loves to scratch it is out there.

My polydactyl old lady cat is 17, and loves to exercise those extra claws on the corner of the leather loveseat. I keep a scratching post there for her and have done the double sticky tape bit, but she's a stubborn cuss and every once in a while just has to "stretch" with her claws attached to the loveseat. Thankfully, it was second hand in the first place as an experiment to see how the gang of 7 handled it, and the bad edge is not viewable with how the furniture is arranged. None of the rest of the younger ones bother it at all, but even so, I won't be getting that new leather sofa I crave until she has passed.

My family room sofa is microfiber, and I do sometimes find myself frustrated with some of the finer cat hairs seeming to weave themselves into the texture of the fabric. I keep one of the rubber finger "de-fur-er" brushes in the adjacent side table drawer for quick touch ups in between vacuuming, and that actually seems to work better than vacuuming.

Microfiber has been the only fabric left alone by our cats. Leather has been punctured during "take-off" and anything with a looser weave has been scratched. A lot. You probably already know this, but make sure your scratching post is tall enough/stable enough not to be knocked over; we made ours with a plywood base probably 20X20 and a carpet-covered fence post about 32" high. It is a thing of beauty ;)but the cats love it.

I think every cat is different, but to my amazement mine do not scratch any furniture that I've reupholstered in wool or mohair. My partner says it's because it seems like real fur to them ... maybe it's just because it's too soft to get a really good scratch in? Who knows. But it works for us!

Wood! :)

For me it was also the cat hair. I have 2 long haired cats, one a Maine Coon.

Here is a link that might be useful: Craftsman sofa

Have you all tried the Pledge pet hair sweeper? My cats are both champion shedders, and this thing does the job better than almost anything I've tried for the beds, rugs, and upholstery.

And I agree with hollysprings that the rubber-fingered brush is also really good for stubborn grabby surfaces.

First of all thank you for NOT amputating her toes in response! Kitten claws are very very sharp. You can keep them trimmed which may help reduce the casual damage you describe. It's a good time while they are kittens to teach them to be patient when trimming. Just do one claw at a time for now, one per day starting with the front left paw left claw and go around the clock from there. You can work up to gradually doing more claws at a time.

For furniture, we have some leather which does sport a few cat claw scars (they were running along the back and jumping on to the cat tree - we moved the cat tree so this doesn't happen any more) but they are only noticeable up close. The microfiber "suede" chaise lounge we have still looks brand new. It does collect some fur but a quick wipe with a microfiber cloth or the vacuum makes it looks new again. They jump on this chaise and I've even found them scaling it with full claws and no damage is visible.

Wow! I want to say thank you to you guys for all the helpful advice. I really came to the right place. She is a Maine Coon so I know what will help with the hair now too. I tried the saddle soap and my living room furniture looks so much better. Most of the scratches are blended in but there are still some terrible gouges left. We are going to go ahead a wait a little while till she calms down and look at Craftsman sofas. My husband thought the Craftsman sofa idea was brilliant!

I don't remember where I heard about this, but when I got a 9 month old rescued cat years ago, I gave it a try. I took plastic grocery bags and cut them so they would open out fairly flat, and used common pins to fasten them to the sides of my sofa and chairs in areas where the cat was likely to scratch. If you have leather, you can probaby use painters tape. I had heard that cats hated plastic of that sort, and it worked. I took him to his carpeted "condo" frequently, and gently put his paws on it and worked them like he was scratching. He caught on quickly, and while he also used to like to scratch on my rugs, he never touched the furniture. The plastic is easy to take off if you have guests, and after a while, he didn't even try the furniture, and I didn't put it on anymore. He lived to be 17, and was the most awesome cat ever.

saypoint, that and "sticky paws" which is like double sided tape work well for training cats not to deliberately scratch furniture. But to me it sounds like this is unintentional claw damage, from the kitten running and jumping on the furniture. At least that's what happens at my house, the cats scratch their posts but they do sometimes damage the furniture by jumping on and off. I don't trim my cats' claws but if damage was a problem I would trim them.