Doesn't your cat play with the edges?

Take kitty to the groomer and have him shaved.

a dishwashing glove is excellent for removing hair (people and cat) from fabric furniture. But I've kinda surrendered to the fact that my house is gonna be a little bit furry most of the time...especially this time of year.

look at the size of that cat, playing with fringe sounds like exercise!

I have a pale tan nubby fabric couch, and black cats, so I feel your pain.

What works for me is a quilt. I found a pretty antique-looking pattern in the colors in the area rug and decor, took off the couch cushions and sandwiched them in between the quilt (folded in half around the cushions). Then I put the whole sandwich back on the couch, tucked in the quilt neatly on either end and along the backrest, and put the pillows back in place (the couch has big pillows along the backrest).
It looks like a quilted slipcover, but it's easy to yank it off and wash and I don't have to worry about cats doing cat things on my very light colored couch.

There's really nothing like working at your laptop and seeing a piece of fuzz float past your monitor :) Rabbits shed every three months. Ours doesn't get to hop onto the furniture whenever it wants but the fur travels.

Don't have a dark couch and a light cat, or vice versa. No velvet.

The rugs look nice but what about the back of the couch?
Do you comb your kitty every day, I find that does wonders in the shedding department.

Ha! I read FrankiesGirl's comment wrong. I thought it said, "What works for me is guilt." I was wondering how on earth anyone could guilt their cat into anything. Then I realized, it's something my mom could totally accomplish if she put her mind to it.

I love the rug idea - so much better than a sheet. Our "solution" was to let kitty shred our old couch to pieces. After that, we inherited a futon that she wants nothing to do with. Unfortunately, neither do we. :p

I typically drape soft or fringed throw blankets over the the most popular kitties' sleeping areas on the furniture and the bed.

Get yourself a Leather Sofa, easy to clean.

I also got the Dyson City it came with a Mini turbine head and it removed all the cat hair that was embeded on our cushions without altering the fabric texture.

Leather! My cats never scratch it, and the hair is easy to remove. Sadly, the hair falls to the rug - from which it is less easy to remove...

Slipcovered or leather furniture are the best solutions for my household. We still have to use the lint roller in between slipcover washings, but that's okay.

I have found cat fur in places my cats can't even get to. I have given up trying to keep my house totally free of it.

When I had a cat, I have to admit that the cat was KING!! What he wanted, he got including lying on whatever he wanted. His slave (me) got to do the cleaning up after him -- daily / twice daily... In short, my solution was to clean up more often...

Invest in a Furminator. More than brushing or combing, it pulls out all the dead hair and your cat will shed a LOT less. Also, during particularly sheddy times, I put old towels on the sofa and he prefers to lounge on those anyhow.

One word: FURMINATOR

I have a longhaired black cat who loves to snooze on my white couch, so I understand the never-ending battle...

My answer: vacuum diligently at least every other day. Thank goodness my apartment is only 450 sq ft, so that's a reasonable option...

But for you busier folks, I also recommend getting a Furminator as a preemptive strike against fuzzy couch issues. I "Furminate" my cat weekly and always pull off a few baseball sized fur balls. Since beginning that routine, there's been noticeably less fur on the couch (and elsewhere). An ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure!

This might sound odd, but for my shed-tastic black kitty, the biggest difference came when I switched his food to a high-quality organic brand. His coat improved dramatically - it's now super shiny, thick, and sheds WAY less than before - and now all I have to do is brush him in the evening (which he loves) and vacuum twice a week to keep things looking nice. :)

Furminator and a leather couch.

When my partner and I got together about five years ago and I already had my long haired black cat. She grew up in a family that despises cats so it’s been a battle ever since, literally. She can’t stand the idea of cat hair on furniture or in the air and the rest of her family refuse to even come into our house because they hate it also. I vacuum and lint roll the furniture everyday but it’s always a struggle to keep the hair at a minimum. We’ve found that laying out afghans on the couch work pretty well at making sure that she only stays in one spot, but that’s hardly a solution. I plan on getting her shaved down in the upcoming months, hopefully that will help.

I got a beige duck slipcover, and just throw it in the wash anytime it gets gross. I hear light colors work better for this because you can bleach them, but I've never needed anthing more than oxiclean.

"Furminator and a leather couch."

Bam. There it is.

I'm having an allergy attack just looking at that photo.

To all those who suggested a leather couch - do your cats have claws? We are thinking about investing in a leather couch, but we're afraid that our fully clawed cat would damage it. He never intentionally scratches the furniture, but he does jump and knead - declawing is not an option.

We have a chocolate colored sofa with a thin-weil corduroy fabric, so its a total fur magnet. I cover the sofa in throw pillows at night, spaced with cat beds. They have no choice but to snooze in the beds when there are pillows covering the rest of the surface, so it mostly keeps the fur localized.

Having 2 dogs and a cat, hair is just part of the decor sometimes.

We have hardwood floors (in roughly the color of both dogs) to keep allergies down and allow maxium clean. We have a leather couch (great for muddy paws), and even that isnt perfect. The back cushions have a felt backing to keep them from sliding down, and my largest dog loves to flip them over with his paw and lay on the felt side, which has hairified and torn them up a bit. Breaking his habit is impossible, so I now cover them in king sized pillow cases which fit perfectly. The bottom cushions are sometimes covered with a navajo blanket which they also love.

BUT alas, we also have a velvet 2 person chair that's the new favorite dog & cat bed. I throw a sheet over it which looks terrible but is so easy to shake out and wash.

Then there's the bed... they love the bed.

Ever vigilent, never rest, in the war against pet hair.

I have a furminator and i swear my cat sheds MORE when i use it.

but thelma doesn't go near our leather sofa - go leather!

Microfiber upholstery, short hair cats, weekly vacuuming... the bunny fur is another story, but we confine him to one room most of the time for more control of the fluff...

Is your cat a SIBERIAN FOREST CAT and did you get him from a breeder in SoCal?

-please respond, thanks!

I'm not a cat person, so I have a rabbit. I can deal with the shedding, but I'm having a difficult time with the chewing... he has lots of toys and materials to nibble on but prefers eating my duvet...

I broke down and got an all leather couch that can easily be wiped off with a Swiffer... however, it does feel oddly similar to a chair wrapped in plastic to the bare leg.

@peej,

We have a leather chair and two very old and out-of-shape cats with claws.

When their nails grew too long, they have nicked the leather while getting up and into the chair. So the front edge of the chair has hundreds of little kitty pokemarks. But they have never destroyed leather with "claw sharpening" as they have with fabric and carpet. YMMV.

We're waiting to get a leather sofa (ideal for hairy dogs and messy kids/adults) until after our fat, geriatric, unmanicured cats have gone to their reward, bless their tiny little (immortal?) hearts.

@peej Both my cats have their claws (though we try to keep them trimmed), and leather couches. They won't scratch the leather couch at all. They try to scratch and old fabric chair we have, but its never been an issue with the leather couch, they just lay on it without the scratchiness.

However, I had a cat previously who loved to sit on the back of an executive leather chair at my desk, and she scratched that chair to death, so I don't think its a hard and fast rule that *all* cats will not scratch leather chairs. Maybe you can try it out on some faux leather fabric to see if they will scratch at it before investing in leather furniture.

My cat had to go when I moved in with my partner. She's very allergic to cat fur, and the cat wasn't doing himself any favors by digging into her leather furniture whenever he got the chance.

I highly recommend Miniature Schnauzers if you want a pet but hate the fur that comes with them. We have a couple and they don't shed at all!

I just had to put my cat down last weekend and this picture made me start crying. I wish she was still here to shed all over my couch.

Cat (and Chihuahua) wins every time! I have a Pottery Barn loveseat I cover with a cream Ikea cottony throw. Plus I've brought back the vintage embroidered antimacassars for the arm rests, they don't have to be plastic!

We adopted our adult kitty and didn't know she was declawed until we signed the papers, so for once in my life, scratching is a non-issue!

Never understood how you can keep a house "clean" while living with a cat. Unless vacuuming and de-shedding your cat 24/7 is your job, then congrats. Sorry cat lovers! :-/ No cats for me = restful, beautiful, pleasant, allergy-free home

I just bought a vintage leather chair that my cat does scratch on- and has clawed little holes in already. So, I guess, depending on the cat and the leather, you could be in for some scratching.

As for the couch, I have a futon (oh, the horror) and instead of a futon cover I just covered it in a matelasse coverlet, tucking it in all around. I can take it off whenever I want to wash it and honestly, it looks better to me than a regular futon cover.

@jerid - how about not letting your rabbit near the duvet? Mine likes to nibble on shoes. We make sure to keep all footwear hidden behind closed doors when he's out.

Rabbits chew when they're bored. They don't always seem to care for colorful or complicated toys. Try giving your rabbit just plain toilet paper tubes. They like things they can chew on and throw. I find that my rabbit doesn't care for the fancy chew toys I can get at the store. As soon as you wave a toilet paper roll in his face, he perks up and can't wait to throw it around.

I got my cat after I got my couch slipcovered in orange, so choosing a short-hair orange tabby was a no brainer. It doesn't hurt that the little sweetie likes to sleep on the floor under the chair or in his carrier.

Dyson Animal. The pet hair attachment is amazing. No cat hairs left on my couch. Albeit, we have to vacuum a lot too. I like your idea of the throw rugs and it does add a pop of color and interest!

Cats and leather couches....hayyyyylllll no. My cat is even de-clawed but his back paws left scratches from using the cough as a launching pad. I would take the sticky roller over those scratches anyday. And with 3 cats and a dog...we use LOTS of sticky rollers.

cough=couch...can you tell im sick?! weird.

Four cats here, three black and one dark tabby so no light colored furniture. Cats get brushed daily; furniture is slip-covered and cleaned weekly and washed about once a month; wood floors also help. I guess though I figure they are part of the household and I clean it up as needed. We used to have a couple of long haired cats and did get them shaved short several times a year after one almost died of a hairball blockage--the shaving kept them healthy and kept the furniture a lot freer of cat hair.

@everyone whose partners hate their cats... I'd be looking for a new partner.

And we have a leather couch that wipes clean easily, and our long haired black kitty gets brushed every day. Buying a new leather couch is a dramatic and expensive solution though...A slipcover may help though. Are you any good at sewing? Sew some slipcovers for the cushions... if you do two sets you can slip one set on while the other is being washed/dried.

And I think if a cat has a post to scratch, it will stay away from your furniture.

great new business plan. upholstery fabric to match pets. comes in Chocolate Lab Brown, Border Collie Black and White Tweed, Ginger Tabby Cat Tweed, etc.

My cat doesn't scratch up my furniture, but he definitely wins the war when it comes to fur on the sofa...not to mention the occasional hairball.

My kitty "Princess Fuzzy Butt" rules her kingdom and sleeps wherever she wants. There is nothing more cozy in the world than a kitty sleeping in the house. We call them "love hairs" and tell each other that no outfit is complete without some love hairs from the kitty.

buy furniture that matches your cat.

my cat hates the sectional couch for some reason, though she likes the portion of it in the bedroom. Her favorite spot is a shirt on the closet floor or behind the computer on the desk.

Eh. I have three cats and a velvet sofa. It takes twenty seconds to remove the cat hair with a lint brush (not a roller), so it's not a big deal. The fabric is a very tight weave, and I've never had cat hair stuck in the fibres.

I have learned to live with it... I would love to have a Furminator, but my cat gets a bad case of patricide when I try to groom him.

I have a vintage orange sofa and chairs, and a black and white cat. But Floris seems to be only shedding his white hairs, seeing as my livingroom looks like a fuzzy winter wonderland. Herpaderp

ha! that is fantastic!

this has been an issue in our house, because we were silly enough to get 3 cats of different colors (grey, white, black). we basically can't win.

and with a new sectional just purchased, we were spending 30+ minutes just lint-rolling and vacuuming. I will definitely give this a try, because my husband thinks we can just shoo them off the couch, but they're going to win eventually.

Your cat's twin sister (just as fat and exactly the same coloring) is asleep on a fleece throw I keep at the foot of the bed. Tried furminator etc but nothing really works. I just try to limit the exposure but giving her places she likes.

oh, and i see some posters above talking about cats and leather. please...no!

we tried that, thinking...'oh how wonderful our lives will be, no more lint-rolling for us'. that's when the scratching started to be an issue.
they destroyed 2 couches in a matter of months. expensive couches, at that.

our sofa now is microfiber, much more comfortable and worth the trouble of lint-rolling.

plus, they're family. that would be like me trying to kick my husband out when he leaves dirty socks on the floor.

I have a C&B sofa that attracts cat hair like nothing else and one very shed happy cat. Thankfully she only likes to sleep on the throw blanket that covers maybe 1/8th of the sofa. I love her for that!

Best solution is Sticky Sheets. They pick up embedded fur that the vacuum or regular lint brushes simply can't get. www.stickysheets.com

I use the Pledge Fabric Sweeper and it does a pretty good job. I was leery because I didn't want to buy and toss the darn thing every time I used it, but you can pop the top off, ever so gently, and use it again and again. Now to get a spinning wheel and make yarn out of all that fur...

Use a lint brush - so much faster than vacuuming and less wasteful than sticky rollers. Works like a charm (I know because I have 2 cats!)

i don't have cats... pretty simple for me :) i did when i was little.. but they lived where all animals were created to live.... outside. :)

Furminator + Pledge Fabric Sweeper, you will be set. Can buy the first at any pet store and the second at any large grocery store or walmart, etc. That sweeper works amazingly well on our microfiber couch.

also:"buy furniture that matches your cat." LOL!!

My dog has her own little couch, which is covered in her hair. She's a boxer. Once a week I use a handheld pet hair tool connected to my Bissel vacuum. It works pretty well. However, she also gets on our regular couch but her hair blends in. And it's microsuede so I think that helps not catch it as much.

@ LAtoNY: I'm so sorry for your loss. Losing a beloved cat -- or other pet -- is so painful. Hopefully someday you'll be lint rolling and vaccuuming again with a new furry love.

Having 2 cats that get on everything and two dogs that rub up against everything was the only way I could justify the expense of buying a Dyson Vacuum.

The first day I used it, I thought I vacuumed up a cat, there was so much fur in it. Apparently, my old vacuum and lent brushing of fabric furniture did very little to keep it clean.

Thanks for the great ideas. When our two whippets arrived, my husband and I started cleaning more, replaced fabric with leather upholstered seating, and lowered our housekeeping standards. Are you serious about shaving cats? I never heard of that!

You guys are hilarious! AnnaMaria here. I do feed my cat high-quality food, and I am a huge fan of the Furminator. But he still sheds. We actually have another cat too -- they were mine before I met my man and he loves me enough to deal with them -- and a golden retriever, so I have to be vigilant about cleaning, as well as accepting of the fact that everything we own is bound to be covered with fur. Whatevs. A small price to pay for cuddles. :-)

I wish fur was the only thing to worry about. I have two cats and a dog who also drag dusty paws, or litter, or other things on the sofas. So I have two Ikea karlstad sofas w/ the cheap white slipcovers and extra slipcovers to switch out every few months to wash. (I go to the states for the covers since they are $39 vs $149 in Canada) I also have blankets on the cushions and the backs of the sofa and wash those every week. Furminator does help, but any brushing would do. I don't mind doing all this because I love white sofas and I love my pets even more. :) BTW- if anyone knows of a good bleach alternative (eco friendly) that actually WORKS, please let me know.

Having hair everywhere is a small price to pay so I can have my fur babies in my life :-)

It has been mentioned numerous times but the FURMINATOR! Honestly its the only thing that gets at the undercoat of the fur. Your house and kitties will never look so good. Its amazing!

I'm with you, MXM. It's not worth getting wound up about. My cats are good friends, and that's what matters.

I have four cats and a dog, so my *strategy* is to Admit Defeat.

I have a colorful piece of fabric draped on every surface on which the cat likes to lounge. (Bed, chaise lounge, couch.) When people come over, I lift off the fabric for a cathair-free place to sit. When the fabric gets filled with hair I brush it off and wash it. I have trained the cat to know where it's piece of fabric is. Seems to work well, as the cat sees the fabric as it's "bed."

Good idea, those little rugs! It's now been almost a year since my last pet died, leaving me the only shedder in the house, but before that I periodically sprinkled catnip in the cat's bed. Over time it became his favorite spot and so the place he shed most, and I just threw it in the wash periodically. Any extra fluff vacuumed up off the couch easily.

I just discovered Ssstcat and it is AMAZING! It's a can of compressed air attached to a remote sensor. I can deal with fur (cat wins there) but my idiot cat has a giant void where his brain should be and far prefers expensive couches to his NUMEROUS scratching posts. I have never had a cat like this before. No amount of water squirting would dissuade, no amount of treats would make him switch. But he is now completely terrified of the whole couchal area all thanks to Ssstcat. We're just moving into a place with a formal front room and I think we're going to make the whole room off limits with Ssstcat in deference to our friends with allergies and to keep sneaky kitties away from the front door.

We also cover our couch with a quilt. However, this isn't entirely due to cat fur, but to cover up the horrible dust-filled quaill-patterned ancient monstrosity of a couch. We hate it so much we don't even care if the cat scratches it any more.

Microfiber couch. Biege. Gray short hair and black long hair. Not an issue to clean up at all even when shedding. It isn't very static clingy and a wet rag wipes away all hair. No scratching is apparent on my couches either. After 5 years the couches are like new and the cats behave :D.

I guess I'm lucky : my cats don't go on the couch anymore ever since I made them a suitcase bed - an idea that was posted here a while back. They love to sleep in that thing so there's so much less hair on the couch now !!!

Ooooh, suitcase bed. I'll have to look that up!!!

He looks JUST like my cat and if he sheds even half as much I'm so very sorry for you. My boyfriend's already had to dismantle my computer once to clean all the cat fur out of it.

I have a (dark) velvet couch and wood floors. I have the Furminator which pulls out gobs of fur but he seems to just produce even more. Wearing rubber dish-gloves and running my hand over the sofa seems to be the easiest method of de-furring and I have a little hand-held vacuum with motorized bristles. I'm thinking of getting the bissell pet fur broom to tackle my wood floors because the fur just floats around on them. On top of all of that I keep a stash of lint rollers in my desk at work because de-furring before I leave my apartment is pretty pointless.

For all the people that commented that they use the Furminator, I have a quick question. We just bought Furminator brush for our short haired cat and I have to say, it's kind of scary how much hair comes out each day.

I just did some googling and it looks like Furminator also makes a cat deShedding shampoo. Has anyone ever tried that?

Daily sweeping followed by a sweep with a Scotch furfighter. It doesn't get every single little dog hair (from one dog - roommates' dog and she won't brush him because she says "he doesn't like it" and "she lost the brush" ahem. I bought a brush and gave it a go but he growls at me and I don't have alpha status so I gave up.) but it gets almost all of them.

Dogs win, hands down. I cover their favorite spot with a couple of blankets and wash regularly, but my furniture, sadly, is a Microfiber Misadventure (most effective fur magnet on earth that's not actually something coated with adhesive). There's hair everywhere. It would be better if I were less lazy. I'm not. It isn't. I have a Dog House, but I'd rather have my babies than a fur-free dwellin'. I deeply, deeply wish to go leather, but falling on the continuum between vegetarian and vegan, there be Issues thar. Am hoping to find lovely secondhand leather furniture, but still.

In short, alas, methinks that past a certain point, once you've acquired the best tools (Furminator) and strategies, furlessness is just about how much work you're willing to put in.

@ec05, aprilheartsaaron: word. Got a black Lab, then a Golden. Single boneheadedest decision of my life! It's cream-colored pets from here on out. (Aforementioned Lab is 10. I will absolutely die when she does, but 1% of me is looking forward to my house looking half as dirty...and actually having clothes that at least APPEAR hair-free now and then.)

The worst part, oddly, is the car. Cloth upholstery, and it's amazing how each tiny hair weaves itself into the fabric. I vacuum, then I lint-roll, then I inside-out-duct-tape, then I get the other thousand hairs like Cinderella, with my fingertips, one by one. I wish I'd never introduced them to Going Bye-Bye in the Car and found out that they view it was the single best thing in the world. Vets need to make house calls, man.

The things I rely on to deal with shedding, dirt and claw marks from my 2 indoor/outdoor cats are:

-- an inexpensive (Walgreen's) two-sided mitt and the Scotch (?) type 2-part roller for picking up fur from love seat, bedspread, clothes (I use packing tape as a backup for stubborn fur strands on my cotton shirts)

--a rubbery cat-shaped "comb" with big rubbery nubs, to use on the cats to remove loose fur; works so much better than fine-toothed combs, and they don't mind it as much as combs (those combs are still good for in-between Advantage type flea treatments, however)

--microfiber material for the love seat; for some reason, the cats don't try sharpening their claws on it

--an Indian blanket covering another love seat (It also holds 4 kilim-type pillows, which turned out to be Very alluring to the cats, but so far are not showing claw marks)

--a flokati type area rug; the cats were initially freaked out by it; now, the girl-cat occasionally "kneads" it, but it shows NO signs of wear after at least 9 months of use

--a patterned, heavy bedspread; doesn't show tiny pulls and tears the way another fabric or pattern would

--noticing what type of scratching posts or surfaces they like best -- horizontal, vertical, etc., and making sure I have those available to them in a couple rooms of my condo; I shelled out a few more bucks for an especially tall sisal scratcher and for a curved, "hilly" sisal-carpet scratcher, both of which they adore. And I splurged on a tall corduroy-type-covered cat tower that they can climb inside of and also scratch

As far as leather goes, they so far have not hurt my leather desk chair, but when they were uncoordinated kittens, one of them accidentally scratched my new leather headboard while he was chasing a flying insect (arghghgh!); I've read that an iron can help "seal" the mark and make it less visible but I haven't tried it yet. You have to be really looking for it to see it... but I know it's there, darn it

1.) Only buy furniture which matches your cats. (serious)
2.) Microfiber is great for cat owners. The hair doesn't stick as much and it's harder for them to claw it. It's still possible to claw it and it does still get hair on it. But it's not as bad. Extra points if your microfiber cushions have removable covers that can go in the wash.
3.) Quilts folded up on the favorite kitty spots. my mom is a quilter and I have several quilts around, but if you don't have as talented a mom as I do, you could get some throws or something.
4.) Cats love to sit on fleece, and it doesn't even need to be hemmed or anything. Just get some fleece, fold it up and put it in kitty's favorite spot.
5.) Relax and enjoy your kitty. What's a little hair?

i never have and never will pick possessions over pets.

I wouldn't have a partner that would make me get rid of a pet. Thankfully the current pet was actually my husband's idea (black kitten - and yes, a tiny shallow part of me is glad she's black, because it doesn't show on my clothes).

We do have a cream couch that came before the black cat, but we got it for free anyway and so far she's actually not gotten much hair on it. Probably because she prefers laying in the bed - which is being themed with black linens.

Husband does request that any dog I get be a non-shedding breed - probably a poodle or a schnauzer.

Pi, my rabbit sleeps on the bed and I just can't resist the morning cuddling sessions. I don't give him fancy toys, he has an assortment of toilet paper rolls, apple tree sticks, pine cones, free access to hay and pellets. The only "fancy" toy he has is a sock monkey, which he hops around the room with and throws around.

The nibbled duvet, while frustrating, is livable... I now have a stack on pre-cut hexagon patches and I patch as I find new holes... A honeycomb design is slowly making its ways across my bed :)

My cats scratch on everything, doesn't matter if they have a scratching post, they just include that in their repertoire while continuing to shred my couch, my bed, my chair and my barstools. If I had anything leather they'd probably scratch that too.

So I got them Soft Paws and it works beautifully. They still go through the scratching motions but it doesn't do any damage. The boy is pretty good about having them put on but the girl is a challenge. Still, totally worth it and so much nicer than declawing.

I've given up on winning the cat hair battle. The microfiber couch doesn't attract too much hair but my comforter is ruined.

My cats love my 2 crushed velvet chairs...and I do not love the white carpet they leave behind on them! I went to a fabric store and bought an end-of-bolt of fleece, cut it to fit, and lay it over my chairs and sofa when we're not using the room. I also love that it's washable, and the cats love the nuby fleece for cuddling.

Slip covers. We gave our old, very expensive custom-made linen couch to my daughter who needed one and bought an inexpensive model from Ikea that has a sturdy dark grey slipcover. The cat fur is easy to get off with the vacuum cleaner or a sticky roller, and it seems to stand up to the scratching, too, because the weave is so tight. But when if it gets damaged, I'll just buy a new slipcover from Ikea or Bemz. It means that I can change the colour on a whim, which is fun.

Two (long haired) Maine Coons in my house. you can imagine the fur everywhere.

I don't think this has been mentioned yet but

***SCOTCH FUR FIGHTER****

don't even bother with those sticky rollers that don't do a damn thing. I use the fur fighter on my microfiber sofa, area rug, and hallway runner and it pulls up enough hair to knit another cat. It is the ONLY thing that works for hair removal - Don't bother with any other brand - this product is the only reason that I am able to keep a clean house. It picks up fur you didn't even know was in the upholstery.

Come to think of it, I should just have the refill sheets on auto-delivery from Amazon, this product is that good.

(I sound like a salesperson don't I? I'm not! There are very few things in this world that I would gladly shill for and this is one of them.)

I also lay a small sheepskin on the couch, except when company come over. My cats prefer to lie on it rather than on the couch fabric. They even pump on it.

On shaving cats: Yes it can be done. It is worth calling around to find a groomer who has experience and understands that the cat (probably) has to be done with no dogs around. Cats are kind of funny about being shaved too close around the neck and the tail, so we always got ours a lion cut, where the groomer would leave some length around the head and tail, but go pretty short (but not shaved down to the skin) everywhere else. When they were done they looked a lot like newly sheared sheep with a mane. During shedding season and summer it kept the animals cooler and happier and the reduction of deadly hairballs in our case made for happier owners (the afflicted cat had such fine fur that it just knotted up in the guy).

Not that this post needs another comment but I have the same couch (CB2 right?) and the same color cat. Those new pledge fur rollers work pretty well to get most of the cat fur that gets embedded in there, and if you pry open the top you can reuse instead of throw it out when it's full like the directions say to do. Just a tip! (It's probably already been given in the 100+ comments!)

My cats win. I don't really fight the shedding. I vacuum the couch when I'm vacuuming anyway, but otherwise I don't worry about fur. When you have pets that regularly vomit, fur seems unimportant pretty damn quickly!

I'm actually hoping to make two fleece covers for my couch after I move. Fleece because it's soft, won't shrink and washes easily, can go in the drier, etc, and if I make two, one can be on the couch while the other is in the wash. Then my kittehs can shed, sneeze and puke on my couch and it should be easy to clean up.

I only have short haired kitties that I groom a lot. Putting a bunch of throws on couches looks nice and cleans up easy - just put in washer occasionally and cat hair is gone. I also got them a cat tree by the window and now they spend most of their time lounging there watching the outside world instead of shedding on my furniture. ;)

We have 4 cats and a lab. We can vacuum twice a day and the hair is still out of control in our house.

Removing the hair from our microfiber sofa seems to be pretty easy though. And the Dyson Animal seems to help.

2 of our cats have all of their claws and they will destroy anything leather (even with several scratching posts scattered throughout the house) so no leather for us. But, I seriously envy those who can have it with pets!

OMG you NEED to get one of these:

http://www.petco.com/product/106332/KONG-Cat-Zoom-Groom-Brush.aspx

It is technically a brush for kitties, which one of my cats likes and the other one hates. BUT if you use the back flat side then you can remove hair off of furniture and carpets. I swear this thing works so much better than any vacuum or sticky paper can. It is actually miraculous.

I deal with it. Dyson Animal. If you have just a standard vacuum you used pre-pets, you should invest in one of these. I got my 2 cats from SFSPCA and two weeks later my boyfriend and I realized there was fur accumulating in every nook and cranny and our vacuum just wasn't sucking it up. We got a dyson (with animal attachment) and it sucks all the fur (embedded and not) right out pretty quickly (5 minutes on the sofa).

Most of my friends have cats so even though I try to clean the couch before people come over, I don't worry about it. I have lint rollers I can offer them when they leave ;)