Declawed vs. Clawed

Last November I adopted a 4 y.o. DSH from the local shelter and I named him Willie. (He was already declawed, I didn't declaw him) Willie has been showing signs of boredom and lonliness. He's previous human listed the reason for surrender as "grandson has allergies". I'm thinking that his last home may have been a senior citizen who was home with him all day. I don't work super-long hours, but Willie seems so stressed when I get home from work. He's also gained weight since he's been with me, and I don't think that our nightly play sessions are enough exercise for him.

My question is twofold:

1) Will it be o.k. to get a cat with claws if Willie has no claws? I don't want Willie to be bullied by the new kitty.

2) Should I get a male or a female? I've read several old threads about this, and most say that I should get a slightly younger cat. The cat that I'm interested in is a male that is 1.5 years old.

Any advice is greatly appreciated!

Angela

I have introduced many new cats into my house.

Here is my advice,

Get a kitten if possible. An older cat from my experience adapts much more quickly to a baby being introduced. Make sure you give Willie plenty of solo attention as well, don't just coddle the newbie. Also don't expect him to be happy about it at first, it will take a few days for him to adjust to the new cat. In my house, I got a 4 week old kitten a few months ago, my Siamese adapted much more quickly and after 2 days he was playing with her. For my other tiger cat, Sammy, he took 4 days and now he is the father figure. He grooms the kitten and swats her when she is acting up. He plays with her some, but as he is 8, he tires after 20 minutes of rough housing with her and he will make it known that she needs to bug off. It took a few hisses and swats, but now she knows when enough is enough for him. As for the declawed issue - they never go at each other with their claws out - they do play a little rough with teeth at times, but I have never seen them scratch at each other.

Until this weekend, I had 2 males and a female. I have not had a problem with the male cats getting along - they were best pals, but again I brought the Siamese in when he was a kitten.

My neighbor just adopted a 7 year old male cat and she has a 2 year old male. It has been 3 weeks now, and they are finally getting along. So it can be done, but it seemed to take a lot longer.

We have one declawed cat in a household with 6 cats. The declawed cat is at a definate disadvantage, and she does get bullied at times. Because of this, I would consider adopting another cat that had already been declawed, but I would definately not declaw another cat so that Willie won't be bullied. From what I understand, declawed cats have a hard time finding new homes because they can't go outside, so you may be doing a homeless declawed kitty a good thing by giving it a new home.

If introductions are done properly, you can adopt just about any age of cat to be a playmate for Willie. Probably a younger one would be better since they would want to play more.

As for clawed and declawed cats living together, this is exactly my situation. We got Trent declawed on the advice of the vet before I knew any better. Now that I know what declawing is, I will never get Ophelia (or any other cat for that matter) declawed. They still get along just fine. In fact, Trent is more of the Alpha cat, and sometimes he gets too rough for Ophelia. She never uses her claws against him, no matter how rough he plays. She just screams for Daddy to come and rescue her, and get Trent in trouble (she's trained Daddy very well ).

All,

Thanks for the great advice. I will definitely keep this in mind as I choose a new kitty. If I get a kitty with claws I DEFINITELY won't declaw him/her just to level the playing field. It's good to know that I have such a resource available for information. This site is the best.

lotsocats: I totally agree that their are many declawed cats that are at a disadvantage when it comes to adoption. Most are a little older and this puts them at a double disadvantage.

valanhd and autumngirl: Thanks for your insight. I will probably be posting again, once I bring home my new kitty.

I'm going to visit a kitty named Simon either today or tomorrow at his foster home. I'll be sure to let everyone know how things turn out.

Thanks again,
Angela