im no cat expert but i saw your blog and, i saw that you said cardboard?
try one with some kind of soft material, and a hard inside, put your cats food inside one of the holes or something, this might work.
this one might be a little expensive, but you get the idea, try one with places to go inside like the one below...
http://www.chasemytail.com/images/pawprints/PP2015--Cat-castle.jpg

I know some people use a squirt bottle. Give them a little squirt everytime, they atart to associate scratching there with the water, it doesn't harm them, and they should stop.

I thought cats loved scratching cardboard. Mine does.
Good Luck with your couch, it would be a shame if it gets wrecked.

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OBAMA: You Betcha, My Friends!

I've used the squirt bottle too, and it works - when you can catch them at it, which isn't always.

One thing I've used / recommended in the past is just to clip his nails. Often, cats scratch because their nails are too long, and need to be pared down, so to speak. You can use a regular nail clipper, or the cat nail scissors you can get at the pet store. If he's difficult, you can try wrapping him up in a towel (I call it kitty burrito) and only pulling out the foot you need to work on, one at a time. If he's really difficult, or you don't feel comfortable, find a groomer in your area and find out - they'll usually do it on the cheap.

Also, the other reason cats may scratch is due to anxiety. If there is anything stressing him out, try to address that from the root - a new home, new food, new people, etc. If you want, you can also try something like Feliway (sp?) that looks like a one of those smelly plug-in things, but just emits pheromones to help keep the cat calm and happy. Worked with my girls when we moved to our new place.

My cat has her own leather ottoman. I picked up at a junk store, in very fine condition. It looks pretty bad now, she's happy and she leaves my stuff alone. NOT THE SPRAY BOTTLE!

you can get the rubber nail caps, and/or the plastic protectors that go on the corners of the furniture. I haven't eliminated bad scratching behavior by my cats, but having MORE cardboard scratching pads helped, and at least with one cat sprinkling catnip on the scratching pads helped. Put them around the corners of the furniture that the cat is scratching. Good luck!

also I am not a proponent of declawing because I think it's pretty cruel, but if it comes down to getting the cat declawed or getting rid of him, declaw him.

He's a partially outdoor cat. I would never ever declaw him and I wouldnt give him away just because he tears up a couch. He was abandoned and then passed around until we finally found him and I think he's got some attachment issues, like an adopted/unwanted kid. I would never have the heart to give him up, even if he was worse.

We've recently started letting him outside alone (we were harnessing him and "walking" him for a few weeks before this) and he seems MUCH happier. He's given up on scratching the couch but I still catch him scratching walls... he even tried to do a big yawn and stretch on the side of the tv but he got in big trouble for that hehe.

Thanks for the advice people!

I know this is an old message but I will tell you what worked for me. I used tinfoil and taped it onto the place my Mischief was scratching. For some reason cats hate tin foil, my kitty is scared of it. Every time I saw him scratching on his post, I gave him a Temptations kitty treat. This is positive reinforcement. You have to do it within 30 seconds of him scratching or else it won't reinforce the behaviour. Now my kitty doesn't scratch anywhere else, just his scratching post, and when he does it, he looks at me like, umm where is my treat? It really worked for us. Good luck.