I had to post this,, this is a cat that is posted on Petfinder.org near my area.. Her name is NALA.. They call her post NALA Mutilated.. So sad
I can't help her out, because I have dogs and 4 cats/kittens.
Read her story.. It's so sad!!
Nala is a stunningly gorgeous cat who will likely never get a home after being mutilated by her former owners choice. Sadly, her behavior after her mutilating declaw operation was unacceptable to them and she stopped using her litter box regularly. We realize she will likely never be adopted and will have to live as a foster cat for her remaining years. Forgotten by her former family who chose to have her declawed. Please stop, read and think. If you are offended by the truth of what happens in declaw operations, do not read further. If you want Nala's full story, read on. If you are considering declawing your furbaby, please read about what Nala suffered for the sake of her owners furniture. Maybe you think this will make your cat a more agreeable cat or that you have no viable alternative left. Maybe you have convinced yourself that really the operation is no big deal; sure it's tough, but kitty will be back to her old self in a few days. THis was not how Nala's story went. Or maybe you are picking out a new kitten and have already resigned yourself to the idea that soon you will have to make that fateful trip with kitty to the vet. Before you make an irreversible decision, let me tell you what happened to Nala. "Who is this person?" you are probably asking yourself. I'm the person who will greet you and your cat when you step in the door on the day of your pets surgery. I'm the veterinary technician who assisted in Nala's declaw mutilation. If you really want to know how things truly are back in the OR, I'm the one who's got the skinny. I'll be taking care of Nala before, during, and after her mutilation (or surgery as we like to call it). Let me tell you my story.... this is what happens: I get to work around 8:00 and check on all our patients. I have to get the clinic in working order so we can begin checking in the surgery patients at 8:30. You are the first client here. We fill out the paperwork and you hand me kitty and say "I'll be back tomorrow . Don't worry!" Then you head out the door, get in your car and go wherever it is you are going. I weigh Nala and make her comfortable in her cage. Around 2:00 or so, Nala's time has come. She gets some anesthesia and some pain medicine and she's out like a light. I shave between all of her toes and scrub them clean. I have everything ready: the nail clippers, hemostats, glue, tape, bandage. It's show time. I hold up one of Nala's feet and the doc begins: The procedure is sort of a half pull, half cut kinda thing. The nail clippers are doing their best to saw through the joint while the hemostats are ripping it away. And please make no mistake here, this isn't a nail trim. A cat's first joint, just like on your finger, is being ripped out. Nala utters a half growl/meow of pain as the joint tears away, even after all this medicine. The pain must be excruciating; it is certainly a gruesome spectacle to watch. Doc fills the gaping socket where Nala's toe used to be with some special glue and squeezes it together for a few seconds. We move on to the next toe until we're done. Now we bandage and when we're done Nala looks as though she's wearing little mittens...aww. I come in the next morning and reach for the doorknob to the recovery room. "Crap!" I think, because the smell hits my brain before I even open the door to see. Blood has a very specific odor, you see, and after a while you have the ability to recognize many things: parvo, cancer, bloody declaw cats that don't seem to like their mittens- all by their respective smells. Sure enough, Nala got a head start on removing her bandages so I begin my day scrubbing her blood off the walls, the door, the floor, and his cage. I clean the blood off Nala's fur the best I can and begin to take off her bandages. I try so hard to be gentle but I know I still hurt. I have to cut down the bandage until I'm right beside Nala's purple swollen toes and she cries. I examine each hole where Nala used to have claws and make sure they are all still sealed. They never are, of course. There is invariably at least one or two that must be reglued, so I sigh and get my glue. Then I drop some goo into Nala's socket and squeeze her tender and bruised deformed little toes together for several seconds. This hurts. A lot. And I feel like the scum of the earth. I clean the last bit of blood from Nala's feet as best I can without hurting too bad and hope that Nala will finish the job herself before you come. You rush in on your lunch hour and I bring out Nala and remind you that Nala's feet are going to be very sore for a while. You already knew that.....bye Nala. Three months later you bring Nala in to update her shots. You ask me why Nala doesn't seem like the cat she used to be anymore. She never wants to play or do much of anything. And she has turned into a biter! You don't understand, you tell me. Why isn't Nala the same? I don't know why. But I do know that when I watch my cats play (who all have their claws) they love to scratch on trees, climb up trees, hunt moths... (you know, cat stuff). And I know that cats who don't have claws would find it very difficult to climb a tree, and scratching is definitely out. Scratching is something domestic cats really enjoy- I know this because my cats used to have contests around the scratching post. They would fling themselves around it and see who could scratch the fastest and the hardest. I had 8 cats all with claws intact in my house. I also had a brand new couch; the two co-existed peacefully. It wasn't easy, I admit. Training a cat requires patience, much like children. I used waterguns and scratching posts. Please remember if you have a kitten that some materials may be too rough on your kitten's claws. It takes a while to break these things in- give it a little time! Try a carpeted scratching post that also has the heavy duty stuff. I kept my cats' nails trimmed regularly, starting as kittens. Try SoftPaws. Provide fun distractions: my cats had a 6 foot tall cat tree and they loved it! As far as biting goes, this is a common "side effect". Cats with no claws have no other means of expressing dissatisfaction with their lot in life and resort to biting. Or maybe they are just mad at the world now. I don't know. And finally, for those have attempted to rationalize a declaw by comparing it to a spay/neuter- you aren't even in the same ballpark. A spay/neuter cat comes in just like Nala, but she doesn't cry during her surgery. She gets to go home that very day while Nala must wait behind. She bounces and runs around the house that very night because she is so glad to be home. She doesn't even seem to notice that she will never be a mom. Meanwhile Nala is getting a pain injection. Our doc stopped doing ear crops. I hope declaws are the next to go. Mutilation in the name of aesthetics or convenience is still mutilation. Don't add another 'Nala' to the world of unwanted, problem pets who are deemed 'unacceptable' through no fault of their own.
PS:: Mods--If this is in the wrong area,, sorry!
Read her story.. It's so sad!!
Nala is a stunningly gorgeous cat who will likely never get a home after being mutilated by her former owners choice. Sadly, her behavior after her mutilating declaw operation was unacceptable to them and she stopped using her litter box regularly. We realize she will likely never be adopted and will have to live as a foster cat for her remaining years. Forgotten by her former family who chose to have her declawed. Please stop, read and think. If you are offended by the truth of what happens in declaw operations, do not read further. If you want Nala's full story, read on. If you are considering declawing your furbaby, please read about what Nala suffered for the sake of her owners furniture. Maybe you think this will make your cat a more agreeable cat or that you have no viable alternative left. Maybe you have convinced yourself that really the operation is no big deal; sure it's tough, but kitty will be back to her old self in a few days. THis was not how Nala's story went. Or maybe you are picking out a new kitten and have already resigned yourself to the idea that soon you will have to make that fateful trip with kitty to the vet. Before you make an irreversible decision, let me tell you what happened to Nala. "Who is this person?" you are probably asking yourself. I'm the person who will greet you and your cat when you step in the door on the day of your pets surgery. I'm the veterinary technician who assisted in Nala's declaw mutilation. If you really want to know how things truly are back in the OR, I'm the one who's got the skinny. I'll be taking care of Nala before, during, and after her mutilation (or surgery as we like to call it). Let me tell you my story.... this is what happens: I get to work around 8:00 and check on all our patients. I have to get the clinic in working order so we can begin checking in the surgery patients at 8:30. You are the first client here. We fill out the paperwork and you hand me kitty and say "I'll be back tomorrow . Don't worry!" Then you head out the door, get in your car and go wherever it is you are going. I weigh Nala and make her comfortable in her cage. Around 2:00 or so, Nala's time has come. She gets some anesthesia and some pain medicine and she's out like a light. I shave between all of her toes and scrub them clean. I have everything ready: the nail clippers, hemostats, glue, tape, bandage. It's show time. I hold up one of Nala's feet and the doc begins: The procedure is sort of a half pull, half cut kinda thing. The nail clippers are doing their best to saw through the joint while the hemostats are ripping it away. And please make no mistake here, this isn't a nail trim. A cat's first joint, just like on your finger, is being ripped out. Nala utters a half growl/meow of pain as the joint tears away, even after all this medicine. The pain must be excruciating; it is certainly a gruesome spectacle to watch. Doc fills the gaping socket where Nala's toe used to be with some special glue and squeezes it together for a few seconds. We move on to the next toe until we're done. Now we bandage and when we're done Nala looks as though she's wearing little mittens...aww. I come in the next morning and reach for the doorknob to the recovery room. "Crap!" I think, because the smell hits my brain before I even open the door to see. Blood has a very specific odor, you see, and after a while you have the ability to recognize many things: parvo, cancer, bloody declaw cats that don't seem to like their mittens- all by their respective smells. Sure enough, Nala got a head start on removing her bandages so I begin my day scrubbing her blood off the walls, the door, the floor, and his cage. I clean the blood off Nala's fur the best I can and begin to take off her bandages. I try so hard to be gentle but I know I still hurt. I have to cut down the bandage until I'm right beside Nala's purple swollen toes and she cries. I examine each hole where Nala used to have claws and make sure they are all still sealed. They never are, of course. There is invariably at least one or two that must be reglued, so I sigh and get my glue. Then I drop some goo into Nala's socket and squeeze her tender and bruised deformed little toes together for several seconds. This hurts. A lot. And I feel like the scum of the earth. I clean the last bit of blood from Nala's feet as best I can without hurting too bad and hope that Nala will finish the job herself before you come. You rush in on your lunch hour and I bring out Nala and remind you that Nala's feet are going to be very sore for a while. You already knew that.....bye Nala. Three months later you bring Nala in to update her shots. You ask me why Nala doesn't seem like the cat she used to be anymore. She never wants to play or do much of anything. And she has turned into a biter! You don't understand, you tell me. Why isn't Nala the same? I don't know why. But I do know that when I watch my cats play (who all have their claws) they love to scratch on trees, climb up trees, hunt moths... (you know, cat stuff). And I know that cats who don't have claws would find it very difficult to climb a tree, and scratching is definitely out. Scratching is something domestic cats really enjoy- I know this because my cats used to have contests around the scratching post. They would fling themselves around it and see who could scratch the fastest and the hardest. I had 8 cats all with claws intact in my house. I also had a brand new couch; the two co-existed peacefully. It wasn't easy, I admit. Training a cat requires patience, much like children. I used waterguns and scratching posts. Please remember if you have a kitten that some materials may be too rough on your kitten's claws. It takes a while to break these things in- give it a little time! Try a carpeted scratching post that also has the heavy duty stuff. I kept my cats' nails trimmed regularly, starting as kittens. Try SoftPaws. Provide fun distractions: my cats had a 6 foot tall cat tree and they loved it! As far as biting goes, this is a common "side effect". Cats with no claws have no other means of expressing dissatisfaction with their lot in life and resort to biting. Or maybe they are just mad at the world now. I don't know. And finally, for those have attempted to rationalize a declaw by comparing it to a spay/neuter- you aren't even in the same ballpark. A spay/neuter cat comes in just like Nala, but she doesn't cry during her surgery. She gets to go home that very day while Nala must wait behind. She bounces and runs around the house that very night because she is so glad to be home. She doesn't even seem to notice that she will never be a mom. Meanwhile Nala is getting a pain injection. Our doc stopped doing ear crops. I hope declaws are the next to go. Mutilation in the name of aesthetics or convenience is still mutilation. Don't add another 'Nala' to the world of unwanted, problem pets who are deemed 'unacceptable' through no fault of their own.
PS:: Mods--If this is in the wrong area,, sorry!
