I adopted a declawed Himalayan cat from the
shelter....he did not exhibit any negative behaviour
at all.
I am all for dogs and cats because overseas they have given me much pleasure comfort and company.I always adopt stray pets for the afternoon or visit those tied up. They have saved mylife on occcasion I am sure in India. Greeceis also a wonderfull place to adopt dog friends and cats.I could be way out in the wild and a stray starving cat will find me. I always carried food. One time at preveli I found a cat locked in a shed. I pulled the bottom of the bamboo door open and released it. It was delirious from hunger and water. I came back each day hurring down the over 1000 steps on the cliff side to the secluded beach. And there was the last of the bountifully feed cats when this place is crawling with tourist and in the 5 months of winter almost noone goes there and some of cats die because of the extremes in conditions. They got to know me and I was king and spent hours alone on the bech with them all arounfd me anticipating my every movement. It was these time and others when farmers let me take theitr chained dogsup into the mountains on goat paths exploring the coast line of the Peneopolisos.
How do you play?
When you play-wrestle with your cat, how do you do it without trying to dodge the front claws? I have two cats, both declawed. I grew up with cats, all declawed. Never have we had a mean, sociopathic cat.
Only when I look into homes with clawed cats, with the cats let outside because its "only natural" for them to be out, do I find dead animals, or unhappy owners.
I will always declaw, because I have it done at a proper vet where they can be put on pain medication. After the surgury, the cat is fauned over hand and paw. Food brought to it. Lifted to the litter box. Special treats. Medicine that tastes like salmon. Seems to me that they're really suffering (sheesh). I will never own a cat that isn't declawed, because when I play with my well socialized cats (who have doberman and bunnies as friends), I don't plan on having less weapons ready than they do. They live inside, anyway. What do they need to protect themselves from? And on top of that, if they did have claws, they'd probably send themselves to the vet constantly with their cat-play-fights!
Preferences are not and should not be against the law.
thhey make special paper roll litter for recently declawed cats. This is justt anothher PC thread about what is institutionally "proper" and I aint buying it.
We have 8 cats, 2 live inside full time and the others have a very nice kennel and can run about the farm and the fields. The outside cats we dont declaw because they climb and run. We also see that they do kill birds but not so many as you think because they are well fed cats and only hunt for sport. They are great mousers in the barns, and we have 3 people who board horses withh us who just love the cats "arrangement" with the horses.
All cats are fully shot up for everything from parvo to FIV, (that is the only problem withh outside clawed cats, they can catch new diseases from wildlife and insects)
algis--you should make a photo journal of your animal friends
My cat (clawed)curls up with our sheepdog for a nap...they have a great bond! I think her claws
have been instrumental in eliciting respect.
claws will only be used lightly when playfighting - if used a bit too enthusiastically an ooowwww! means they let go straight away - even our new kitten, when cat's play with each other they give the same signal that it's too rough
I don't agree that it's a PC issue farmer but one of cruelty
Not a big fan of it either...
Just another article about declawing that might be of use:
http://www.tcnnews.com/content/view/360/2/
Hmm. I would not declaw a cat personally or allow one of my cats to have it done. As far as making it illegal; I have to be honest and say it is not all that important to me.
I have two cats. Both have their claws. One was labelled 'unadoptable' by the Humane Soceity and was on her way to 'the big sleep' when I got there. She used to scratch and bite at me. Without declawing; her behavioral problems have been dealt with.
The second cat is young and likes to scratch up furniture. Again; time and effort has eliminated most of the unwelcome behavior.
I am not fond of hearing folks declawing their pets. I also don't like hearing of ear cropping, or tail cropping. Just leave the lil fellas be!
I have a cat whom I took in as a stray. Some previous owner removed his front claws and neutered him, neither of which I would ever do to an animal. People can always convince themselves that it is their right to do, what they find convenient. That's why there are anti-animal cruelty laws. I would certainly vote for making it illegal.
Wow! This thread is more divided than the Christians and the Lions over on spirituality and religion!
Both my husband and myself are terrific cat lovers. At this time, we only have Jezzer, our 12 year old, and can't wait until we can get a couple of babies to love, and keep Jezzery-doo on her toes.
I don't think of the cats that have shared my home as pets, they are my dear friends.
My best friend of all time was Dr. Lulu Abromowitz, who lived to the ripe old age of about 21. She helped me through many hard times, taught me many lessons in life with her terrific attitude and was a total joy at all times.
Dr. A. was special, they'll never be another "girl with the sunlight in her hair" in my life, but I have loved a number of other cats, and cannot imagine not having cats in my life.
All my other "girls" have lived past the age of 17 or 18, and were with me to the end. Nothing I had to do to make their golden years more comfortable was an "inconvenience". We fashioned kitty ramps for those who were having a hard time hopping into the litter box, and when they got to the point of not being able to jump up on the couch on their own, one meow produced loving hands that gave a little lift.
I've cleaned up more litter box accidents and sick-ups than I care to remember, letting the little ladies know that "that's okay, these things happen" and have become an expert at administering medication to an unwilling patient with only the rare cat freak-out.
As my friends came to the end of the road, I constantly kept an eye on them for the slighted sign from them that they felt this all has gone on too long. Each one at some point looked me my eyes and told me when they thought they wanted to go. When their time came to be put down, they went to sleep being caressed by loving hands. The tears were always saved for after, so as to allow their passing to be as stress free has possible.
My husband and I would be considered the most responsible, loving, attentive caretakers of felines. Any cat would be quite fortunate to share our home.
That said, every single cat I've ever owned has been declawed.
No small part of being a responsible cat owner is ensuring that a declawed cat NEVER gets outside. No cat of mine that has been raised indoors expressed any interest in venturing "out there" I mean "yewwwwww, yuck".
In truth, there have been a handful of times when a door was accidently left ajar, and a cat would poke her head outside, sniff, and then in a puzzled moment take a couple steps onto the porch.
Then, suddenly, there would be a look of panic, one that said "Holy ****! I'm Outside! Quick! Run under the house!
When this would happen, NO ONE went back inside until the cat was back in the house. There would be no running around the neighborhood, just one small kitty sitting hunched up under the house, just beyond the range of a streached out arm.
No other cat or dog would come around, since they didn't want to deal with two stupid humans getting in their way. Our fear is that the cat would run off confused and get hit by a car, more than being attacked.
As a matter of fact, my personal feeling about people who have cats and keep them outside is that they are condemning their animals to a premature death in the form of disease, fights, cars, other people and the elements. Indoor cats are healthier, live much longer and receive more love and care.
As far as the actual declawing experience. My cats never, I repeat, NEVER suffered from any physical or phychological trauma from the experience.
They walked normally from the moment they got home, on the second day they were jumping down from a table, by the 3rd day, jumping down from their 7 foot perches without a flinch.
They all refused to use the special litter provided for after declawing, instead using their regular litter.
There was no bleeding, no infection, no loss of appetite and no ornery behavior.
These animals are not being put on the rack and tortured, they are under the care of an experienced vet.
Cats suffer much more being left out in the rain and cold, getting muddy paws, fleas and lice.
Yes, cats are trainable, but that takes the extended time to be home with them, when one does need to go out and earn a living.
You can't say to a cat "OK, don't scratch anything until I get back so I can train you"
Furniture? Yes, that's a major consideration. Nice furniture is expensive, and I'm not going to risk even one good piece getting ruined (and a cat knows which one is your favorite, and that will be its favorite too) and living in a trashed out environment.
So, before turning this into a black and white issue, consider ALL the reasons a person might choose to have this done.
Frankly, I think many of the warnings about permanent damage is largely scare tactics. As far as the pain, yes, I'm sure there is some, but, you know what? None of this gets through this life without some pain, and depending on the owner/cat/living conditions, it is a small price for the cat and the owner to pay for enabling the cat to live inside without getting stressed over only being allow to scratch in one place forever, and living a much longer, happier life.
I truly believe if my little friends could express themselves and knew their options, they would have opted for the temporary pain in order to live the life they've got now.
I absolutely agree with you, Chai. You sound like the same kind of cat owner that I am. Indoor is the only way to go.
I was able to successfully train former cats not to claw the furniture or drapes, but not the two I have now. I only succeeded in training them not to destroy things when I was around! (hahaha!) At night or whenever I wasn't in the room, they did as they pleased.
I have some heirloom antique furniture that was being damaged, as well as custom draperies. It couldn't go on. And I wasn't willing to take my cats to our only animal shelter, where they would certainly have been put down.
Declawing was the best solution. Two days after it was done, they were their same lovable, frisky selves as always. They have a great life, and my house is (relatively) safe now.
I run a homeless cat shelter. Yes, declawing is a painful process for a cat. But, if it comes down to the cat living or staying in a safe home, then yes, I will do it.
I have one huge black and white cat that clawed furniture, walls, baseboards, you name it. It's not that the furniture or the house was more important than the cat. What was important was the cat would never have a permanent home as long he destroyed things as he did.
So, I made the decision to have Oreo declawed. He was sore for a few days but now he is happy, healthy, and has a permanent indoor home. I have met people who have had cats declawed both front and back and I am completely against that. As long as they at least have their back claws, they still have some defenses.
I would only declaw a cat in extreme cases such as this. They do have little caps you can put on a cat's claws to keep them from clawing things. I have never tried them but have heard they are helpful sometimes.
I did have one cat here at the shelter that was already declawed in the front and he refused to stay in the house. He was outside for four years and never had a problem.
Momma, my vet said that sometimes cats will start clawing things with their back feet once their front claws are gone, but that's pretty rare. They recommend removing the front claws only if there is destructive behavior, then waiting to see if that stops the destruction before even thinking about removing the back claws.
As he predicted, I only had to remove my cats' front claws.
Yeah, I've seen those cute little plastic caps. What a joke! You'd have to drug my cats into unconsciousness to get those glued onto their feet!
Eva,
Doesn't surprise me a bit about those things. I couldn't imagine trying to put them on some of mine. I had talked to only a couple people about them so I didn't have that much info on them.
Oreo was very destructive. He left deep, deep claw marks in every piece of wood he could find. He still acts like he is sharpening his claws on the wood but, of course, he's not hurting anything.
I am so glad he did not start using his back claws! I am not sure I could ever completely declaw a cat. I did have a Persian at the shelter once that came in that way. He had been horribly abused. After two years here, he finally was able to find a new home.
I had tried to use those caps on my cats. My cats are wimps and even they growled and fought me while putting them on.
They are a joke. I managed after fighting with them for about an hour to get them on. Once on I was lucky if they even lasted part of a day. It wasn't too long before the cats managed to pull them off.
Linkat,
Thanx for telling us that. I will be sure not to recommend them. I was wondering how they even kept them on.
I didn't want to start a different thread, but I was just wondering if people get DOGS declawed? Does that happen? What about rabbits?
If so, do your feelings change (would you get a cat declawed but not a dog)?
dogs dont use their claws in the same fashion as cats. dog claws are for stability, traction , and besides, they are usually kept filed down if you walk the dog on stones or pavement. A dogs weapon is its mouth , a cat starts by shredding with its claws.
Our new little Maine Coon is going to be declawed. We have some very good antique furniture and cats dont take instructions as well as dogs. Ive had to put PVC tubes around the legs of our highboy. Little coon cat took one look at the highboy and headed for it Face it, theyre just not as bright .
No, they just don't take direction.
I heard that a cat is an intelligent as a octopus.
Octopi do not, as far as I know, scratch furniture. It would be very cruel to declaw an Octopus.
However, they will force their bodies into your heating vents and through keyholes, creating all sorts of mischief.
