Cats make excellent home decorators. At least, they think they do. The problem with their style of decorating is too much fringe. If they had their way, every piece of furniture in your home would be covered in ripped strands of fabric from their sharp little claws. I can't tell you how often I've pushed a sofa into a corner or added one too many throws to a chair to cover up kitty's recent decorating job. I've tried all the methods you can think of to stop her clawing sessions: sticky strips, yelling and screaming (doesn't work. do not try.) and sour apple spray. Most of these were met with haughty looks of annoyance and silent snickering behind lethal paws. Well, I've finally found something that will stop your cat from destroying furniture and though I'm not into product endorsement (I am not receiving compensation in any way for this post), I thought I needed to share this with you because it has cut down on my frustration significantly.
The product is called Soft Paws and they are basically plastic claw covers. You put them on and within a month or two they fall off naturally as your cat sheds layers of her claws. When you order the kit, they supply you with the plastic tips and glue. The trick here is getting kitty to let you hold her paws long enough to apply them. To overcome this hurdle, start touching your cat's paws when petting her. Just a little bit everyday. Eventually, she'll get used to it. To apply the covers, you trim the very tip of her claws, put a drop of glue inside the plastic tip, flex one of kitty's digits, then put on the tip and hold for about 15 seconds. It dries very quickly. After you finish applying them all, you'll want to monitor her for about 15 minutes to make sure she doesn't try and pull them off. She'll still go through the motion of clawing but won't be able to tear anything. Every once in a while she'll pull one off during a claw grooming session, so you just replace the missing one. They come in a variety of colors. The picture above shows Ms. Claudia wearing the pink and blue combo pack. If you'd like to order some for your little rascal, go to www.softpaws.com
Lastly, whatever method you end up using to save your furniture, never declaw your cat. Declawing is severely detrimental to your cat's body and mind.