The Discreet Accessory That Saved My Sofa from Cat Scratches
If you’re a pet parent, then you have worst-case-scenario plans for all your furniture. Even if you haven’t thought about it in those extreme terms before, you’ve cleaned up enough messes and fixed, hidden, or replaced enough damaged pieces to be ready to expect the unexpected when it comes to your pets interacting with your furniture. And if you’re a brand-new or soon-to-be pet parent, then you’re about to become ready very soon!
My two cats aren’t too bad when it comes to scratching our furniture, but anything in our home that’s covered in fabric needs to be protected somehow; otherwise, Cartman and Yoko will slowly tear it apart. For my pleather desk chair and our sofa’s cushions, this has been as easy as tossing blankets over them. But for the corners of our sofa, which is a cotton-covered IKEA sectional, we needed something sturdy that the cats couldn’t reach under. Thankfully, my wife found these scratching post protectors, and they’ve saved our sofa’s life. Seriously!
This clever accessory works by turning the corner of your couch or any piece of furniture into a scratching post — so your cat doesn’t even try to claw at your actual sofa because they already have their talons in something else in the exact same spot. It requires a little bit of assembly — just screwing the plastic base plate into the L-shaped scratching post — then you can slide it under one of the sofa’s legs and the weight of the furniture will keep it in place. The package even includes little cushioned stickers that go over the screw heads to make sure they don’t scratch your floor.
I’ve had two cat scratching covers on my sectional for the entire time I’ve owned the sofa, about six years, and they’re still holding up great. If your cat is especially strong or aggressive you may notice the screws coming slightly loose over time, but you can quickly retighten them whenever you want. These aren’t the only designated scratching surfaces in my apartment, but both of my cats use them every day and they seem to be perfectly content with how scratchable they are.
I feel like pet products always have some caveat (a cautionary claw-se, if you will). My Litter Robot ultimately failed me, and I’ve had my fair share of disappointing cat toys (although there are some great ones out there). But with these sofa protectors I’ve had zero complaints. They work exactly as advertised, they last much longer than I expected, and they’re available in five different colors so you can choose the one that best matches the color of the furniture you’re protecting.
If I didn’t have these, my couch would be a mess right now. Maybe I would have sworn off sofas altogether or developed the patience to trim my cats’ nails much more often than I do now. But luckily, I don’t have to worry about any of that. I plan on using these ingenious scratching posts on every sofa I ever own, and I’m glad both my cats and I can look forward to many more years of stress-free scratching.
Buy: Sofa Scratcher Furniture Protector, $55.62