Groucho decided he was coming home with us when he was 7 weeks old. My first call was to the vet to be sure this little guy got off to a good start. My very first question to the vet was about having him neutered. The second question was about declawing. Our vet explained the proceedure and it was very clear that she does NOT condone declawing unless it's medically necessary. One of the things she emphasized is even though he's strictly an indoor cat, if he should get outside he'd have no way to defend himself. Since Groucho is our first kitty I didn't know about declawing and was curious about it. After hearing our vet's response and what's involved, there's no way I was going to do that to our adorable little baby.

While I'm very much aware some vets will do it without a second thought, I pray they take this baby to a vet that will graphically inform them of what the procedure involves, the effect it could have on the kitty, the many other options available to avoid scratching things up, then either talks them out of it or refuses to do it on a healthy kitty.