I got a leather love seat then a miniature dachshund. She LOVED to sit next to me. Her body left a horrid wear pattern that does not come out. If I rub the "polish" recommended it hides the paler spot for a time...I wish I had put down a towel.

My kitty doesn't like the feel of leather. Too cold when she first jumps up, I think. She'll only sit in a lap or on a blanket.

As a pet owner and mom, any leather piece I bought would be in a distressed finish. Like I said, my cat won't touch it but that probably won't be the case for any future pets.

Distressed is key. Because if it doesn't already look that way when you buy it, it will in short time if you have animals that jump on and off of it. One of my cats went through a period when she routinely tried to shred the sides of our Chesterfield, but we finally broke her of that habit. The cats do scratch the leather seats and arms with their jumping on and off, though, and that's simply unavoidable. Embrace the look of distressed leather. At least that's what I've opted to do.

I was literally just coming here to ask about what kinds of fabrics I should consider with my lovable furry little demons. Is there anything besides distressed leather that might work? Velvet? Microfiber?

I am looking for a couple of lounge chairs for the living room. I'd like to buy quality for a whole lot of reasons, but part of me feels like I should just buy something cheap and be prepared to replace after they destroy it.

Thanks so much everyone for your replies!

Purrus, we have cats and we bought a microfiber couch a while back. It’s not the prettiest fabric out there, but it wears like iron, and in 7 years, we haven’t had a snag, tear, or stain. Someday I’ll replace it with a sofa with fabric I like better, but it has really been a great for pets. We have a couple of chairs with slipcovers made from upholstery weight cotton, and those have worked really well with cat claws, too. I’m not sure about velvet. Anything with a more obvious or looser weave will be a problem.