I have just discovered that Otis has begun to use my new sofa as
another scratching post, well actually DH discovered him doing it, he
wouldn't dare do it in front of me, that's how he  got away with
wrecking the old sofa, he does it when I'm not in the house, sneaky
beggar.  I wouldn't mind but he has lots of new toys, a scratching post
(placed strategically next to the sofa) which has been sprayed in
catnip and I even kept the wrecked sofa cos he was still scratching it
and I naively thought that as long as I kept that for him he'd leave
the new one alone, grrr - I'm not sure what to do yet but on my return
from Leeds this is going to have to have some serious thought.  The new
sofas cost me £700 and while I know it's just a cat thing I can't
allow it to get out of control, I may try cat repellant on the sofas to
see if that works and move the scratching post to a new position, other
than that I don't know what to do.  DH went mad with him and sprayed
him with a water pistol but I said that won't make any difference cos
he knows he's not supposed to do it, that's why he waits til I've gone
to work and I can't lock him out of the living room cos he can't sleep
on my bed, I really suffer if he does.

Marcia

Sounds like a soft paws candidate to me

My daughter was a terrible, permissive Meowmie because her furniture
was newlywed hand-me-downs anyway. Then she got a new couch and had a
devil of a time getting them not to scratch on it. She tried that
double-sided tape, and besides buying a new scratching post, it seemed
to help more than anything. They *really* didn't like it.
Sherry