Originally posted by lmgluvscats
Why do I de-claw? To prevent another sofa and chair from being clawed to shreds, my drapes from being pulled full of holes, and my babies...later toddlers...and then small children being accidentally scratched from interaction with my favorite pets. I don't know how many times I was so thankful there were no claws when my babies were born and then began crawling and walking. I did not have to worry about an errant claw getting caught in their flesh as they played with each other. After all, the children had to be taught how to play with them properly, and I couldn't always be there. In fact, some of my family and friends thought I would simply be getting rid of my cats when our first baby was born!!!
My cats ran and chased each other as usual and played with the mobiles in the baby bed and later the pull toys...so there was constant interaction. I now have 3 grown daughters that love and adore cats and dogs as much as I do, and, OH MY, when they come back home and the cats hear their voices!! It would make you cry to see them come running, whether they are inside or outside, to see there old bedmates.
Even as I write, I have 2 purring kittens that can't get close enough. They want my hands and want to nuzzle my face. But even at this young age they have started causing damage...climbing drapes, kitchen curtains, etc. I had some clothes hanging to dry in the bedroom and they jumped up on them and pulled threads....oh the little dears. I'm glad some of you out there have taught yours different, but I have scolded, water sprayed, tried repellants...nothing worked. I guess that is one of the things I like about cats they are so darned independent. THEY do what they WANT to do like it or not and have a way of looking and acting to get away with it.
What wonderfully selfish excuses to declaw. It is a good job you could afford those operations, else you would have had to find five minutes a day to teach your cats to use a scratching post and you would have had to supervise your children when playing with the cats. *roll eyes*

Please note cats are VERY easily trained to use a post, if it is done properly. If you need help training a cat just post there is no reason to multilate it.

When I hear these very common excuses, I find that the training was never consistant the trainning post was usually a cheap unstable version and the biggest irony of them all.....Cats stop scratching when they get older WITHOUT declawing.

A year old cat is very good about using a post, even if your training was poor but that is too late as most owners have cut off their toes before this point and think the result was worth it.

There is NO advantage to the CAT in being declawed and hence this operation should never take place in healthy cats. People need to learn that 5 minutes of post training a day should be an automatic part of owning a cat, as daily walking is for dogs.

PS. I would not trust your children near a declawed cat, if provoked the cat will attack not using a quick swipe of front claws (which easily heals) but with the back claws and nasty bites a worse and more painful result.