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Both of us working, if we got a kitten... who would have time to train the kitten? With my cat, someone was ALWAYS home to tell her no, and make her get down. And it'd REALLY piss me off to come home after work to find stuff shredded. ;_; I'm making minimum wage, what if they just shredded something that cost as much as I just earned in that day?

As Moth said, there are ways to protect your furniture other than mutilating and training. If you don't have time to train an animal how to behave "correctly" in your home, why did you choose 'now' to get it?

This is going to be the unpopular response, but I will be getting Pixie declawed. She has given me several life time scars and the only solution I have left is to declaw her. I have tried the double sided tape, soft paws, spraying her,the wall plug in that suppose to calm cats, you name it I've done it, and nothing has worked, including seeing a cat behaviorist. Pixies little daggers are coming out.

Here is the little demon after applying the latest set of soft paws, she chews them off with in 24 hours.

Its just her personality, the behaviorist said it is could be the product of several generations of feral cats.

I pulled Pixie and her sister out from under a house several months ago, her sister is amazing, and a wonderful cat. Pix is a master hunter and psycho, but she has her kinda nice moments.

Yeah, but she was roughly 3 weeks when I pulled her from under the house.

She might not have enough to do... Do you have any cat trees she can jump on, climb on, and scratch? How about toys for her to play with independently? How much time do you spend playing with her (with laser pointers, or toys attached by string that you move around and get her to chase, hunt, pounce it, etc.)?

I used to have this problem with my cat, Charcoal, who I rescued when she was 3 weeks old (she was abandoned, I rescued her from the woods), and before I got her a cat tree, and started adding more things for her to play with on her own, and started to play with her more, she was a little terrorist with her claws. I have a fairly large number of scars from her, and I have several pieces of furniture she has scratched up, however, I was still unwilling to declaw her, regardless on what my family was saying (they were trying to get me to declaw her, but I absolutely refused). Before I got the cat tree, I used soft claws and those plastic strips. She absolutely hated getting the soft claws put on. She would hiss, growl, and even try to bite, though she eventually calmed down after a while of having it done and receiving treats and praise while she was getting them put on to let her know that the process wasn't so bad, but it was much better than declawing since it didn't hurt, and she wouldn't have to suffer the long-term health effects that declawing has (back problems, high infection risk, declawing not done quite right and the claws grow back deformed, needing feet amputated from infection, etc.). Also, once declawing is done, you can't undo it. Declawing also removes their ability to defend themselves (their front claws are their primary defense, and without them, they're mostly defenseless). Ever since I got her the cat tree, lots of toys, and started making more time to play with her, she hasn't been such a terrorist with her claws. In fact, she now only scratches on her cat tree posts, and doesn't attack me so much any more, and I haven't had to use the soft claws. I just clip her nails about once a month or so, and she's much happier.

How long have you been using the soft claws? It can take the cat a while to get used to it. After putting them on, watch her. If you see her trying to chew at them, find a way to distract her from them and let her know that they're ok. Reward her for keeping them on and leaving them alone. She'll eventually figure out that they are not so bad and will eventually leave them alone.

Ouch. That sounds painful.
With medical reasons you basically have no choice.
Correct me if I'm wrong.