Saturnalia wrote:
We gave our kitties numerous things for them to play with that were not furniture, however they liked furniture better. This resulted in the declawing.
I'd have gone with less breakable furnature, or making some effort on the encouraging proper behaviour front - most cats (even those older those no longer kittens) can be "trained" away from problem behaviour very quickly with tactical use of a water pistol. Many that have access to the outside world grow out of it naturally anyway.
Though having said that the cats I've lived around have been outdoor+indoor cats - if your's are always indoors (common in very urban areas, people who live in flats, or with pedigrees) then they don't have somewhere out of your way to run off nervous energy and sort out the claws naturally (say, on tree bark) which would make them more resistant to the above sort of behaviour management.
Declawing is strongly discouraged over this side of the pond, to the point where it is illegal in many countries (including the UK), except when deemed necessary for medical or health reasons such as certain deformities of the toe/claw that some are born with. The operation is seen as cruel when performed without medical reason, akin to having a child's fingers and thumbs amputated at the first knuckle because the kid uses it's nails to pick at the wallpaper.
[my apologies to Imp-Chan, for getting a bit soap-boxy in her Happy Announcement thread]
One of our cats (who we were are sure was some sort cat/pitbull cross-breed) used to make a show of pulling off her old claw sheaths with her teeth and dropping them on the carpet or flicking her head and throwing them across the room. I think she was trying to prove something about her tough credentials.