I’m not exactly a cat person, but I’ve always viewed the practice of declawing cats as somewhat cruel.  The human equivalent would be the amputation of the first joint of your finger, which you could imagine would be pretty traumatic if it happened to you.  Even so, I never made much of a stink about it, since the cats usually recover from it and it allows for many people to keep cats who otherwise wouldn’t.

I was very interested when I read about Soft Claws in the comments to this post by Denny Wilson.  Soft Claws are vinyl nail caps that glue over the cat’s claws.  They’re not permanent, so it does require some work on the cat owner’s part to keep up with them.  The makers claim they last from four to six weeks per application (Denny’s experience was four weeks), so a $17.95 kit would last from four to six months.  I guess it would also depend on your cat’s personality with regards to being handled.  I probably wouldn’t try this with my mother’s cat, who has a really bad attitude about being handled (imagine a hung-over wolverine).

I don’t know if this is a practical solution for everyone, but it seems like it would be worth a try before taking the irrevocable step of having a cat declawed.  You can even get them in colors (blue, purple, red, and pink).  Your cat will be stylish as well as being safe for the furniture.