PayItForward,
Thank you so much for the opportunity to explain, although I feel like I shouldn’t even humor anyone with anymore responses because I know that “kittycats_delight” is watching and will keep twisting everything I say. But, as I stated in a previous posting, I CAN justify everything, so this is my last effort to straighten things out….
1) I have “owned” many cats, clawed and declawed
2)The cat that is shredding my “precious” furniture is NOT and will NOT be declawed AT ALL for ANY reason. If it were going to, it’d been done already.
3)The furniture WAS in excellent condition BEFORE the cat’s adoption, but now it’s a life-size scratching post because her behavior could not be stopped in time to salvage.
4)Everything was offered to my cat to use for a scratching post that was suggested. These items are/were available to her at all times:
She has cardboard.
I bought a scratching post that is like a board with carpet and rope on it. When she refused to use it, I got some catnip and sprinkled some on it to draw her attention . There is a rope to hang the scratching board with, so I draped it over the arm of the loveseat and made sure it wouldn’t move. When she still refused to use it, I laid it on the floor.
She had a scrap piece of carpet.
I bought her own towel.
5)The furniture is cloth so tape won’t stick to it when I tried the foil trick. It would just come off and she would scratch anyhow.
6)She is only clawing living room furniture, but she sleeps wherever she wants. She moves from the loveseat, couch, our bed, her bed, all around. (Yes, she has her own little wrought-iron bed, but evidently I only OWN cats, I don’t love and spoil them.)
7)The cat was almost 2 when we got her. We adopted her from someone else that found her abandoned in the weather. They made sure we would/could provide her with a safe and clean home, even visited our house for her. (I know, What were they thinking!!!!)
8)When in the midst of clawing the loveseat, I take her over to the other items to use and spread her paws to expose the nail to the material, and I use a drawing motion to try to indicate clawing. I use the phrase, “good kitty”, but all to no avail.

So that’s the history of our Mystery. Despite others’ opinions, she really does rule this house.

Oh, and as for the dog issue:
Our son got the dog WITHOUT permission when he was 14, and beings how kids don’t think about the future, yes, we now have a dog chained up in the yard. We can’t let him run loose because we live in town and the neighbors will haul him off to the dog pound even though he stays home and doesn‘t hurt anything or anyone. Because the dog is bored and loves to play with children, which we no longer have living at home, we want to find a more suitable home for him, but evidently it is wrong for us to do to be thinking about the dog‘s happiness in such a way.