We're going to have to start getting creative, too. 2 of our 3 cats are good babies and scratch only appropriate scratching towers and toys (and we have EIGHT of these damned things in our house -- horizontal and vertical surfaces...sisal, carpet, other woven materials). The 3rd is a jerk. He prefers the leather sofa (purchased because we figured he'd be less likely to go after that than he would upholstery...and this was the case for about 3 months, before we discovered that he'd been going after the back corners of the sofa, too) and our $$ wool area rugs to his $$ cat towers. He also went after the corner of the bottom carpeted step and just weeks after moving into our new home had it looking like it was 10 years old. Yelling and spraying water are only temporary deterrents. Feliway diffusers have only helped on a limited basis, too.

Trimming the tips off of his claws helps, but we've got to keep up on it. He really seems hell-bent on destroying everything...this is why we can't have nice things!