I Have A New Leather Couch And Cats. A Catastrophe Waiting To Happen!

A leather couch and cats is not always a good idea. The cat might err… scratch the couch.

Recently, we bought two leather couches.

We realized, too late, that new leather couches and cats might not work well. What were we thinking? I don’t think we were thinking at all!

The previous couches were upholstered in a durable fabric and they had worn extremely well and survived general family abuse, such as, food, drink, pets, teenagers, and the occasional small person. 

The cat had scratched the old couches but not in a serious cat attack. The scratches were not noticeable unless to a casual observer, we could see the pilling but the couches were also getting a bit tired by this stage.

Cats Love Couches But Do Couches Love Cats?

To pick up and remove cat hair, I used one of these rubber brushes which worked really, really well. The couches always looked tons better after I had used the rubber brush.

The brush removed dusty bits and crumbs, that accumulate on couches, as well as cat hair. The brush just doesn’t seem to wear out and price wise is good value.

We Hid The Damage On The Fabric Couch

As the fabric on the old couches was tough, the pilling could be somewhat hidden by throw rugs and strategically placed cushions.

The cat had a scratching post but it clearly wasn’t enough.

New Leather Additions To The Couch Family

Eventually it was time to replace the couches. Now contrary to most people furniture shopping is not for me, other shopping yes, but couches not so much.

Finally, and at our peril as it turned out, we replaced the fabric covered couches with two leather couches.

We weren’t prepared for what happened next!

The cat literally made a dash for the new couch and dug those claws in immediately, resulting in holes in the leather.

It was like he had been waiting his whole life for leather couches.

Our response was immediate – Get Off The Couch Kitty! in a possibly raised voice.

Over the next few weeks it became a major problem.

The leather couch and cats combination was not looking like a good idea at this point.

Even if we could keep him off the couches during the day he could do whatever he wanted to in the middle of the night.

Another annoyance which sounds minor, but also became an issue was the throw rugs that we used on the old couches now just kept slipping off the new leather, and somewhat slippery, couches.

Sure they could be thrown onto the couch, in that casual Home Beautiful way. As far as covering the couch, that just didn’t work anymore.

We Made A Plan – Sort Of…

So we had to make a plan to save the leather couches from the cat.

It was a rather haphazard plan at first, with just trying to cover the couches with throw rugs.

That became tedious night after night plus the whole couch had to be covered, so it was really quite a rigmarole.

Not a great design feature but we were desperate and for some reason we had a lot of heavy duty black plastic – don’t ask me why! The shed is a place I rarely venture.

The new heavy duty black plastic covers were fully fitted to the couch.

They actually worked really well. (PS I can see a spinoff profession here). There must be a market for black heavy duty black plastic couch covers.

Leather Couch And Cats! What Were We Thinking?

The heavy duty black plastic covers had to be put on the couch each night so still a hassle, actually major hassle.

Also they did tend to slip a bit so the next step was to attach some lead sinkers (the fishing type) to strategic points so that the cover could stay in place weighted down by the sinkers.

By now it was starting to get really silly and we were on a couch covering treadmill that we couldn’t get off. We were in way over our heads and there was no turning back.

AND, those black plastic covers as clever as they were, were really hard to fold up and put away. Then, where to put them became another problem. They needed to be nearby, but black plastic is a bit of an eyesore, to put it mildly.

Plus wrestling with heavy black plastic when you are ready for some shuteye is no fun at all and just adds to overall crankiness. 

The Solution – I Found Some Covers

Something had to change and it seemed that couch covers of the fabric variety is what we needed. We were starting to wonder why we had even bought leather couches at this point.

Finally, after searching online and not knowing exactly what I was looking for I found some semi fitted fabric covers, which were a similar color to the leather couches and could hip, hip hooray, stay on the couches during the day.

Life was restored to pre leather couch days.

I took the covers off when guests were expected but we just got used to the covers after a while.

I often forgot all about the covers being there at all.

I should mention that they are easy to wash. Because they are largish, I put one at a time into the washing machine and they washed beautifully and dried quickly.

This option was a lifesaver. 

It’s the little things that can become such a chore and putting those covers on each night and taking them off in the morning, was driving us crazy.

I should add that the cat has multiple comfy places to hang out, in almost every room of the house,

on the windowsill to gaze out at the world,

on the bed with a comfy blanket to soak up the warm afternoon rays of the sun,

on a sheepskin rug and so on.

I’m Just Not That Into You Any More

Strangely, after all of this has happened the cat has decided, for the moment anyway, that he isn’t that into leather couches anymore.

When he does jump up, it is softly and to sit on us, not the couch.

Maybe this is because he is getting older and in this past twelve months he has aged a lot.

It leaves me thinking – Did we solve this leather couch and cats problem or did he? Nup, not even going there. 

The couch protectors were a lifesaver and have since been out on loan to someone else with exactly the same problem.

These couch protectors would also be great for families with toddlers and also for grandparents looking after grandchildren.

Furniture is expensive and having the covers just means it doesn’t matter if the cat is sitting there or if something is spilled on the couch.

We just took the very long and slightly crazy way, to find the solution.

A Different Solution For Couch Scratching cats

Carboard Cat Scratchers

Whoever invented these cardboard scratchers deserves a gold medal.

They are brilliant.

Cleaning up tufting bits of cardboard is better than having furniture scratched.

There can be a way to live with a leather couch and cats.

Another Different Solution For Couch Scratching Cats – Cat Nail Caps

Another solution to deal with cats scratching is to use cat nail caps. never heard of them, that’s okay I have written a detailed pros and cons of cat nail caps here and also looked at available nail caps here.

As you can see from the image below, cat nail caps are applied over the cat’s claws. This effectively protects everything from being scratched by the cat. this could be a great solution for you if ca scratching has got out of hand.

Cats being cats, you may find that cat nail caps are a temporary thing, as our cat gave up on scratching the leather pretty well as soon as we solved the problem.

The scratchers are so practical and there are some clever designs, vertical and horizontal to suit different situations or even the space that you have for yet another cat related item.

They are also inexpensive and can be replaced easily. Some have refills which makes them particularly good value.