Taz Zoe,

Good news is Buddy was adopted about a month or so ago. It's the perfect home except for this declawing issue. The guy is 79 years old and is afraid to do it himself cuz he doesn't want to hurt him. His former cat was declawed (by his wife when she had him neutered) so he didn't have to clip his nails.

Buddy has his original scratching post. I've told Hal that whenever he does scratch the rug, squirt him and bring him over to his scratching post.

The problem with using carpet remnants is the cats don't know the difference between the remnant and the carpeting. That's what my vet told me. I had a beat up old chair that I allowed my cats to scratch the heck out of. When I got new furniture, they started scratching it. That's when my vet told me that cats don't know the difference between and old chair and a new chair. Made sense, so I re-directed their scratching to a cat tree. Worked like a charm!!!