We had problems with ferrets digging into the couch several years ago.
Our first try was to take off the webbing on the bottom, so fine, they
could go in, but they weren't stuck inside. When we realized that they
were continuing to dig into the foam of the couch and cushions, we got
several yards of very smooth fabric (probably nylon) that they couldn't
get any purchase scratching at, and protected all the weak areas with
that. Underneath, we used a staple gun and stapled it to the frame.
On the bottoms of the cushions and on the parts of the back and seat
that are hidden by the cushions, we sewed the nylon to the edge of the
upholstery. This has held up for years against a series of ferrets.
Some of them like to push the cushions out from the back and cuddle
up behond them, so we have to check for that, but no one gets lost or
unreachable.

We also wrapped the boxsprings of the beds with fabric, becuase once we
came back from vacation and found a huge hole in the side of the box,
and our sitter had wedged a stuffed animal in the hole to keep the real
animals from going in. The fabric works for these, too, but some guests
have tossed and turned in their sleep and wound up sliding the mattress
off the bed.

Ha! When we bought the couch, the saleslady tried to get us to
Scotchgard it. We explained that it wasn't worth it, we have pets and
the couch was going to get destroyed. She said that's exactly why we
need Scotchgard, but we repeated, no, they're going to destroy the
couch. Can you imagine a fabric treatment that would prevent furniture
from being torn to bits?

-Joel

[Posted in FML 5983]