Ours love sisal! I'd never choose it for a rug.

Had a jute rug years ago. It shed like crazy. AND was difficult to clean kitty hairballs. Maybe that's no longer an issue.

I have a jute runner in our entry way .... one of our kitties does scratch it sometimes, but the fiber is so thick, it doesn't show at all. And it keeps her from scratching the couch, so win! :D I've had it for 10 yrs now.

I'm not sure about a sisal with thinner, tighter fibers, though.

LOL mdln, our cats think alike.

Scratching posts tend to be covered with either carpet or sisal. My cats adore sisal in any shape or form. They are currently begging me to fill the house with sisal rugs. They promise me no more toilet paper shredding or counter napping if I grant this small request.

When they shred their posts, I strip off the old sisal, and then re-sisal them. Cats are programmed to shred sisal.

My cat shows no interest in my jute rug. Or if she's being sneaky about it, at least it doesn't show on my 5 year old rug.

Thanks, guys. I think it would look great for about 5 minutes. But I know my cats, and they do enjoy clawing things. I usually keep a cardboard box around just for Arizona to claw on, and keep it until it loses structural integrity.

Linelle, I bought sisal rope to re-do the cat tree post, but found that the original was stapled to the post in 150 places. I haven't found the energy to pull the staples yet.

I had one. Once. For about five minutes before one of the cats upchucked on it and no mater what I tried it would not come clean. All our area rugs are now woven polypropylene. They hose clean and not even red wine stains them. I know this because my hubby clipped the bottom of a wine glass on the edge of the tall table I had just placed at the side of his recliner and it spilled all over our brand new rug. Luckily I had been working on a piece of furniture in the sunroom and tucked the shower curtain liner under the rug, ran tap water over the stain and watched it disappear.

I haven't had cats for a few years now, but I would not have gotten jute or sisal rugs when we did. We did have both wool and polypropelene without a problem with our cats. I ostered a cat who needed some teaching that the wool wasn't a scratching post (he'd had carpeted posts). Tightly woven wool will resist stains, but some cats may react to the smell o the wool and either scratch or mark it. Polypropelene or nylon may be your best bet.

I have a seagrass rug and runner. My cats knead it, but they are declawed. I'm sure they wouldn't hold-up if they had claws.