Ok Spencer... I read the sites you gave me. Here's the scoop. I currently have two cats and as you know just recently recieved a kitten. My First cat is a year and a half old. I rescued her and her brothers when someone dumped them off at my house. The vet estimated them around 4 or 5 weeks old. The kittens only had about 4 teeth each...they were very tiny. I ended up taking care of them and then giving them away. Lucy, I kept. I got her fixed and her front paws are declawed. I bought the newspaper litter and she never once had problems. I think that if this is done at an early age that it doesn't bother the cat as much. I am not going to sit here and say that it doesn't. Lucy did very well. She never limped once. She is completely an inside cat and on the rare occasion that she goes outside, she is on a leash and harness. In March of this year, my husband and I got another cat, Gina. Gina is a Himalayan. A very beautiful cat. Her previous owners said that they did not want her anymore because she stalks their macaw. (I have 6 birds) I found out that Gina has her front paws declawed. I received her when she was two years old. Neither of my cats EVER go outside. The only time they do is to go to the vet and then i put the leash and harness on them, just in case they get frightened and somehow manage to get away. Don't think that I am an awful person because I chose to declaw Lucy.

As I was reading the post about the lady that her mother's cats were clawing up her furniture, it reminds me of my cats. I am not sure that cats "claw" things to sharpen their claws. My cats still "claw" furniture. And their favorite place to do it is on a HUGE fish aquarium. Its weird. I read somewhere that it is an instinct and they do it to release bacteria that builds up in their paws.

-sorry for writting so much, i got carried away.-