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Cat-proof furniture
krl
Registered User regular
Registered User regular
I want to buy a new couch and two new chairs, but they have to be cat-proof, as one of our two cats likes to use our current chair as a scratching post sometimes (even though we have real scratching post, which she uses a lot). I'd like to have some furniture that's immune to cat attacks. What kind of material am I looking for?
Any recommendations?
Any recommendations?
krl on
0
Posts
How do you feel about modern/post-modern furniture? You might be able to find some designs that don't have a lot of exposed fabric on the legs and arms. Something like this:
http://www.modernfurniture.com/living-room/seating/cambridgesofa1.cfm
Stay away from leather, rattan and chenille. None of those materials hold up really well to animals. Heavy tapestry or a very tight weave microfiber can work pretty well, but again, if the cat scratches the fabric repeatedly, you'll get noticable damage.
Then again, in my experience, cats will do pretty much whatever they feel like doing.
Either that or you can try training your cat using a spray bottle or a loud noise. Everytime you see the cat scratching something you don't want her too, just spray her gently with water or make the noise. Try not to let her see you though, as it'll turn into a sort of "don't scratch when people are around..."
I've also found that keeping the old furniture helps. My cats used to scratch apart my old computer chairs, and when we got new ones, we kept one of the old ones. They haven't been interested in the new chairs at all yet, since they still have their torn up chair to play with.
but a better question is what material will a cat resist
for example, my cats could care less about leather, because it's smooth and not good for clawing.
if something had a lot of threads they could sharpen against, they might try and claw that, like the corners of some much older couches we had.
also, providing a scratching post - something else for them will keep their minds off sharpening on furniture.
As far as I know, something that is immune to cat scratching, comfortable for humans, AND not mindbendingly expensive does not really exist.
You mention that you have a scratching post....Do you have only one? Maybe our cats just have me trained really well, but we have a scratching post, a cat tree with 9 more posts (all the supports are covered with sissal rope), and at least one of the corrugated cardboard scratcher boxes in every room of the house except the bathroom. 2 quite large forest cats (Siberians), and I don't think there's more than one or two intentional scratch marks on any of our stuff.
Like someone has said already, don't focus on making the furniture resist the cat, make the cat resist the furniture. The cardboard scratchers also tend to work better (if your cat likes it, anyway), if you liberally sprinkle catnip all over - a lot of them will come with a bag of dried nip.
Cats usually go for the vertical stuff when scratching, so you can at least eliminate half of their scratching options.
You just mix the lemon juice with about half water mixture, and then just spray lightly over your furniture.
It seems like there is no magic solution here, apart from training the cats and providing some more scratching options for them. I'll definitely try the lemon juice, and I'll ask around at some furniture stores.