Usually I am one with our cats. We have many of the same loves, and often our loves are compatible - Smokey loves to be held, and boy do I love me some kitty-holdin'. Frequently I wonder what my life would be like if it didn't include these wonderful little animals. I can't imagine it, honestly, but I do know that it would probably involve better furniture...
To be fair, Smokey started this. When I moved into my first apartment at Ocean Ave, I owned almost no furniture. My mother located a barely-used couch (with queen-size sleeper bed) for an absolute steal and brought it up for my birthday. I was stoked. It fit perfectly along a wall between the living area and a little hallway, and it was comfortable beyond belief.
It was also irresistable to little cat claws....
I tried everything, from my vet's recommendation of wrapping the arms in aluminum foil (apparently cats hate the feeling so much they won't scratch anymore... at least in theory) to citrus spray. Smokey had no interest in his scratching post -- all he wanted was to dig into the couch arms... and continued to do so until he'd stripped them down to the wood.
When Iggy moved in last summer, it was a lost cause. Eric and I decided the cats could just have the damn couch as long as they didn't scratch anything else (Smokey had moved on to digging the lacquer off a cedar chest I've owned since infancy). And have at it, they did. By the time we moved that couch to this apartment, Eric was insisting we throw it out, but I refused because seriously, it's just the arms and it's a deliciously comfortable couch!
I even still like its shape. Seems to me that made it a perfect candidate for slip-covering... so the year-long debate began, and only just recently did I take the initiative to just say heck with it and get what I want. I really like Eric's taste on most things, but navy blue? Really? No, I don't think so. I decided on a taupe kind of brown suede since it'd go with all our existing stuff, be basically neutral, but not be the off-white I really wanted. I thought I was being very compromising here.
It was remarkably difficult to get the cover to fit tightly. Now that it's been on a few days, I realize I'm going to have to read the "Tips for a Better Fit" sheet, as it's looking more and more like a sheet thrown over a lumpy couch.
However, I've not yet met a problem throw pillows can't fix!
And, in an astonishing turn of events, the cats have made their peace. They no longer seem even remotely tempted to claw at the not inexpensive suede (a huge concern of mine, once I realized the potential damage they could do). Occasionally they half-heartedly scratch at the new blue sofa or the coffee table, as if to keep me on my toes, but basically they're well-behaved. They both enjoy snuggling into the suede and look very cute doing it.
Now they scratch at the walls, making the most high-pitched screeeeeeeeetchy-screeeeeeetch sound I've ever heard, typically between 5-9am. Naughty kitties...
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