First of all, from what I know now, I expect strong opinions on the issue. We just had our 6-month old female kitten spayed and declawed on the front and I’m learning that it’s a bigger issue with so many people than I ever imagined. I know now that a lot of people don’t agree with declawing a cat but it’s the only way that I’d have another cat indoors.
This is our second cat and after our experience with our first one, I swore I’d never have another indoor cat in my life. Muffin, who we got just after we were married, shredded chairs, newel posts, carpeting, and other things even though he had a scratching post that he used religiously. He was a great pet though and we loved him dearly. He died in 1998. Just five months ago, we lost one of our Golden Retrievers. After the heartbreak started to wane and after much thought, we decided to get a kitten. Chrissy immediately found a place in our hearts and our home. We have renamed her to That Annoying Little Sister, though, after getting long looks from Abby, our remaining Golden, saying, “Why did you do this to me?” Most of the time, the looks come when Chrissy ambushes Abby with a launch and a wrap around Abby’s face.
But the inevitable happened this past weekend when Chrissy had her spay and declaw surgery. Ben did some research about spaying and declawing on the Internet. From what he tells me, when they declaw a cat, they take out the bone with the claw at the first joint. But the piece of bone they remove is very tiny and is only there to hold the claw. Very convenient. It’s even next to a bloodless surgery. But for many folks, it’s not natural and could even venture into cruel. For the record, I don’t agree with that view and see the procedure and lifelong results very effective.
Every cat I’ve ever had has been an indoor one and every one has been spayed. I’m sure there are objections to this. We had a female cat in college that we delayed getting spayed until after she went into heat and that is one sight to behold and an even more amazing sound. Our neighbors thought that we, an apartment of 5 19 year old male college students must have adopted a colicky crying infant. Anyway, you don’t want that in your house, particular if the needed will go unsatisfied and you sure don’t want a male cat spraying. That’s just nasty.
As for declawing, when we adopted our kittens, Molly and Cupcake, the SPCA had us sign a document that stipulated that we wouldn’t get them declawed. I suspect this is just a formality and they wouldn’t actually take back the cats if you did. However, we did commit to trying whatever it took so as not to have to get them declawed. All our other cats have been and post surgery it is pretty clear how painful it is for them.
We’ve been lucky (us and the cats). Aside from occasional pulls at our rugs and carpeting, Molly and Cupcake, now over a year and half old, have not gone after the furniture. The have scratching posts that miraculously they use. If they did start to tear the furniture apart we would, reluctantly, have them declawed, but so far so good.
As an aside, in my experience two cats are definitely better than one. Molly and Cupcake are sisters from the same litter and they keep each other great company and show no signs of developing the neuroses that lone house cats often develop. Our last cat, Ned, was a basketcase by the time he died. We worked long hours before Emma was born and were out a lot on the weekends. He was just plain lonely.
Molly and Cupcake are affectionate, sweet, playful, and really great hardly ever wake us up, particularly in the morning; for the most part they wait for me to get up and feed them whether it’s 5:30 am on workdays or 8 or 9 am on weekends. They are hardly any work and and all the fun and comfort they could be. Even my wife who is a dog lover is very glad we got them.
As is the case here. It was clear that Chrissy was in some post-surgery pain. And If one considers declawing an unnecessary procedure, her surgery could border on cruel. But bottom line is that surgery is painful, but not forever. My dad just had his second knee replaced last week and was in tremendous pain following the surgery. He’s making great strides toward getting back to normal now.
Bruce, I’m at best neutral on the subject of declawing, so this is in no way an accusation. But I’m guessing that Chrissy, unlike your dad, did not discuss her options with her doctor.
We were warned about this. That bad, eh? The vet told us that, unlike dogs, cats will go in and out of heat several times over a short time and that it’s a little more attractive than a dog’s heat. He said that if we had a heated up cat in the house, she would be acting like you mentioned above and that every male cat in the neighborhood would be camped out in our yard. There would even be some pretty spectacular cat fights between the courting males. That sort of neat to hear. We have heard cats fighting outside at nighttime from time to time.
As for spaying, I am pretty sure that most animal rights organizations support the spaying of pets. I know that PETA supports neutering dogs and I assume that it would be no different for cats.
Declawing is a bit different. While it probably will cause the cat pain, I am sure that if the cat could make the choice, he or she would gladly accept the pain in exchange for the love and support that he or she will get from your family. Unfortunately, the cat cannot make that decision, which is why, for me at lease, a conflict arises. I am glad that this is something that concerns you; a decision like this should not be easy. Whatever you decide is for the best, and as long as your heart is in the right place, no one should question your judgment. Good luck.
Honestly, having never declawed a cat before, I naively didn’t think anything of it. But when it came time to subject our own cat to the procedure, especially after hearing more in-depth about it, we were concerned. It actually became conflicting in our minds. After dropping Chrissy off at the vet Friday morning, I spent the rest of the day wondering if we had done the right thing. But the needs of the many, or in this case the furniture, outweigh the needs of the one and it will be alright.
I don’t know anything about dogs in heat, but as for our cat, Bogus, she was quite a spectacle. She’d flatten her backside down - and her lower back did, in fact, get almost flat - to the ground and scoot around making a loud, gutteral, aching mewing noise. Being clueless we were concerned and one of us called the vet. We got the scoop and apparently you’re not supposed to spay them while there in heat so we had to wait until it passed, which was several days as I recall, and then got her neutered.
That’s what we do. We put collars and leashes on them and take them in the backyard occasionally. Cupcake gets into it, but Molly is more reluctant. The reverse from how they act in the house; when visitors come Cupcake hides under a table upstairs, but Molly hangs out.
We love Chrissy but I don’t go quite that far. I’ve always loved dogs and had wanted a Golden Retriever all my life. When the boys were old enough to have a pet, one of the first things we did was get a Golden. That’s where Abby entered the picture. Then came Riley, our male that just passed away last fall. He was given to us at age 4.
Funny story: We tried to breed Abby and Riley (before we knew about Abby’s problem) but weren’t getting results. Then someone told us that when two dogs live together, they have a natural aversion to breeding. Later, I was sharing that information with the group at work around the lunch table when one of the married guys said, “Boy, I understand that!” We all had a good laugh.
Nellfurtiti, (<–that’s her in the avatar) the Cat Goddess, is a carrier of feline leukemia and so she can’t go out, ever, or other cats in the neighborhood will get leukemia. She probably won’t get it, but if she’s stressed that might trigger it , so no de-clawing.
Luckily, Herself is also an extremely proficient plywood sculptress. I found this out by accidentally leaving a chuck of ¾ inch un-sanded ply out and, wow, it’s Hers. Being a smart person (the fact that I appreciate cats proves this, despite what anyone says,) I put a similar chunk in several rooms for Her convenience, but the first one is Her favorite. Purchased scratching posts (with or with out catnip, vertical or horizontal) were mostly (and after She discovered plywood, completely) ignored, but a piece of plywood, longer than Herself stretched out to scratch (more than 16 inches, in Her case) and about 6 inches wide, is Her medium of expression. The plywood needs to be long enough so that Her rear feet are on it while scratching, so that it won’t move relative to Her.
She really does use it for expression, whenever I arrive home she immediately scratches and there are other times that it’s obvious that She’s scratching because She’s expressing emotion, usually happy.
I don’t know if this will help with someone else’s scratching problems, especially if there’s already a habit, but it couldn’t hurt to try.
I see no mention of an argument between baking, roasting, boiling or deep frying a cat in this thread. Why is that? It seems like all the bases aren’t being covered here.
, so no de-clawing.
I found this out by accidentally leaving a chuck of ¾ inch un-sanded ply out and, 
(the fact that I appreciate cats proves this, despite what anyone says,) I put a similar chunk in several rooms for Her convenience, but the first one is Her favorite. Purchased scratching posts (with or with out catnip, vertical or horizontal) were mostly (and after She discovered plywood, completely) ignored, but a piece of plywood, longer than Herself stretched out to scratch (more than 16 inches, in Her case) and about 6 inches wide, is Her medium of expression. The plywood needs to be long enough so that Her rear feet are on it while scratching, so that it won’t move relative to Her.
