Our late Agnes was a rescue from the streets, and she had lots of quirks, including an inability to purr. However she was a good cat for almost 19 years, we think. She never scratched the furniture, probably because she reached adulthood without ever *seeing* furniture. Our friend who found her, and eventually gave her to us, spent his money on blacksmithing and pottery, and pretty much lived on the floor!
I remember you saying that Agnes had been a rescue. Hobbes and Calvin have scratch pads and a post, so they don’t mess with the furniture.
They are upset, though, that I have storage under the bed and the big chair.... No room for them to hide.
I had a female calico when I was a boy. Early on, we taught her not to claw the furniture by putting her out of doors whenever she did it, which worked. She quit right away, and we never had any more problem.
Some years later, we went on an extended vacation, so we left her with my grandparents. They lived in a mobile home park and kept her indoors the whole time for fear she’d be disoriented and run off. About the third day of this confinement, the cat walked into the living room where they were sitting, walked right up to the corner of the sofa, pawed (not clawed) at it with both paws, then trotted right over to the front door, and meowed to be given her due “punishment.”