I also had a lot of tattered furniture and rugs. some of my husbands shoes took a battering, strangely mine were left alone. jasper obviously prefers to get his teeth into a mans size elevens as opposed to a ladies size six haha.....anyway since purchasing the old scratching post all the furniture has been spared, i even took the liberty of buying a new sofa which i can safely say is still in tact. Thank heavens for scratching posts, i would like to shake the hand of the person who invented them