When did you change your mind about declawing?

Originally Posted by laureen227

after joining here. Pixel [& Mouse] were both declawed by me, as well as Medley [1st cat] & Smoke [2nd cat]. Medley & Smoke were actually 4 paw declaws.

i still have some mixed feelings about declawing. none of mine ever developed any adverse habits [litterbox, etc.] but i've found [since choosing not to declaw my last 3] that it's not something i need done. i've been careful to choose furniture that isn't easily damaged, & have 4 different cat trees, loads of other scratchers, etc.

since i've always felt adopting a cat was like adopting a child - s/he is yours for life - i would NEVER rehome/get rid of a cat i chose to have declawed, regardless of what habits s/he may or may not develop.

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My boyfriend's cat George who recently died at 15 was declawed and never had any adverse effects from it either...I think it really doesn't have to lead to it...
My main issue is putting the cat through a surgery to me that's a big deal...I was scared when Jake was getting neutered and that's a small and less painful surgery than declawing...

Long, long ago.....then I met & lived with Bea....the Beast from that re-affirmed my dislike for declawing ..... she WAS a nice cat earlier in her life. But declawing ruined her life.

I never changed my mind. Claws come with a cat.

Originally Posted by valanhb

Thank you, Christine.

I don't share my story of being an ignorant idiot lightly. I wish that I had not even considered it! But I do hope that my story saves other kitties from the same pain and heartache that Trent and I went through.

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I want to thank you for sharing your story. These are the kind of stories that made me think twice after working with the shelter. My Smokey was 15 when I started working at the shelter. I knew nothing but a declawed cat that did not have behavioral issues. I will say that as she got older I noticed the arthritis in the joints of her front legs. I have since learned it was probably due to walking incorrectly from being declawed.

I didn't know the truth about declawing until I started researching about cat care before I adopted my first kitty last month. Most of the people I knew who owned cats had their cats declawed, so I didn't think anything of it. When I told everyone I was getting a cat, there were suggestions to get one declawed, but no way. I had to explain to everyone about that. The shelters were good about explaining it to me too, but sadly there was always a number of people who went in asking for declawed cats or wanting to declaw cats.

I never thought twice about declawing until I started doing research about it after adopting my cat. I had no idea it was such a painful process, or that it could lead to problems latter. I know I will never declaw any cat I adopt.

I have never owned a declawed cat I don't remember when I first learned what was involved in the procedure/mutilation. It seems I've always been against it. Cats need their claws for good mental and physical health. Just because many declawed cats seem normal and unaffected does not, in my mind, make it ok. I've been lucky over the years to find wonderful vets to care for my animals that if not actively anti-declaw are at least reluctant to do the procedure. The whole idea makes me queasy just thinking about it.

While living with my parents, we always had front-paw declawed cats. My mom still does. I just never really thought of any difference, but when I got my own kitties, I decided to let them keep their claws. Plus I remember how swollen Tailpipe's paws were and it was kind of sad to see him gimp around when I visited my parents right after his surgery.

I will say that I believe fewer cats are being declawed than used to be. When I first started at the shelter 7-8 years ago, at least 1/2 the cats were declawed. Now we usualy only have a few declawed cats at one time. They are quickly adopted as we always steer people who want to declaw towards one that has already been declawed.

Originally Posted by valanhb

so when they asked "Do you want him declawed when we do the neuter" (with the same intonation as "Do you want fries with that?" Literally.), and I asked "What does that entail?" and they LIED saying it was "a simple procedure where we just remove the claw and nail bed", I agreed. Because I trusted them to tell me the truth. But they didn't - they didn't tell me that the nail bed is really the first joint of their knuckle. I thought it would be like when my husband got his chronicly ingrown toenail fixed.

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Thats exactly how my vet explained it to me when we first got Harley, which was my very first cat, so I was bascially clueless! I had recently joined TCS and mentioned something about his declaw with the neuter, and I remember Susan (Rosiemac) got me some great information which changed my mind - obviously!

Neither of our boys are declawed, I love all of their claws

When I got Levi & Jordan one of the vet techs was supprised I was not going to declaw them. The vet looked at her & said something like she works with a rescue group she would never want to declaw. She was my regular vet at the time & knew about how I felt about declawing and never even asked. When I got Isaac, I had to have him checked in for his neuter by one of the other vets. Not only did that vet ask, but he was kind of pushing it, and said well if it ever becomes a problem. I simply said, "It's not a problem with the other 2 cats I have it won't be a problem with this cat." Needless to say I refuse to have any of my cats see that vet. When I got Maggie, I had a differnt vet & I'm sure she never asked either. I guess I just forget what it's like to have a cat without claws, and it only occurs to me now when someone else talks about declawing their cat. As someone else said, cat's just come with claws, now that I'm educated about declawing I just think of it as a fact.

After joining this site. Growing up, our cats were front declawed, my friends' cats were all front declawed, and somehow in my mind it became paired with spay/neuter as something that responsible pet owners do. I had my first two cats declawed; one became quite mouthy, but that was the only long-term issue I experienced (thank goodness).

Of my current cats, Griffin and Bastian have kept and will keep their claws (even though they occasionally scratch in some inappropriate places); Sprout came to us already 4-paw declawed. Being a Sphynx with no hair on his feet, you can really see how it changes the toes. We call him "mush foot". Thankfully it doesn't seem to bother him much.

I owe a huge debt of gratitude to this site for educating me on this topic. I feel so guilty about the cats I declawed in the past; at least now, any cats I have in the future will not have to suffer through that.

I didn't know it even existed until my family rescued a 4-paw declawed cat when I was a teenager. He was an emotional mess, and his little feet looked like they had been mutilated. The good news was he got to be a "normal" cat at our house and came around. He had been abused and who knows what else before we got him. That was when I decided I hated the procedure...He couldn't even scratch behind his ear if it itched. I couldn't imagine spending your whole life that way.

Of the cats I've had since moving away from home, 3 have been declawed by previous owners. Before it was never really an issue. But last year we had an apartment with steep stairs for a year, then Nabu developed arthritis and has had balance issues since moving to our house (which thankfully is 1 story). The difference is, Lola climbs the cat tree like Spiderman, but Nabu can't catch himself when he slips. We thought he broke his leg about a month ago now. He dislocated his front leg and couldn't bear weight when we woke up one morning. I attribute that to being declawed and not being able to catch himself if he falls. We don't know if his arthritis is due to the declaw, but the x-rays showed he has more than what is normal for his age.

When we took Lola for her spay, they did not push the declaw at all. I was just given info when we were given the paperwork for her spay. If anything I was pushy about making sure she did not get declawed. I have heard stories of cats accidentally getting declawed. I feel sad that Nabu and Stimpy don't get to climb like Spiderman the way Lola does. Cause it sure looks fun.

Originally Posted by littleraven7726

I feel sad that Nabu and Stimpy don't get to climb like Spiderman the way Lola does. Cause it sure looks fun.

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Looking back at my childhood cats I feel sorry for them too. My guys are good at climbing the cat tree, and it really does look like they are thrilled to death to be able to climb.

I think I knew what declawing was, but I never gave it a second thought because growing up, all our cats had all their claws (and they were indoor/outdoor, but that's another topic ) I honestly do not think I have ever been around a declawed cat, but I remember thinking that it was wrong because cats have claws, if you don't want to deal with them then get a stuffed animal

Growing up my parents always de-clawed to protect the furniture. I don't even think we had scratching post either.

It wasn't until I came here after de-clawing Simon, Trouble and Max that I realized just what I was doing to my cats. Sampson, Vanna, Tigger, Pooh, Mocha, Mia and my Bengal boys all have their claws.

I can tell you all three have issues of some sort another too.

Simon hates litter! He will only go outside in the sand. If he just can't hold it to go outside it's the bathtub every time!

Trouble is a nasty biter. She hates for any cat to walk near her and will immediately go on the defense. Great litter box habits.

Max is absolutely perfect with attitude and litter box habits. But my beautiful boy has the most deformed Tootsies you have ever seen. As he gets older the more he walks on the back of his feet past the pads. It looks like he has really long feet.

Of the three he just breaks my heart knowing I did that to him. My cats
were de-clawed by three different vets in three different states and all of them offered the de-claw with the spay.

I will NEVER do that to any cat again.

My parents never declawed any of their cats, so I grew up being scratched & still am being scratched! Not on purpose.. things just happen. I keep their nails trimmed the majority of the time.

I have quite a few scars on my hands/arms from cats over the many, many years.. "well this one is from so-&-so from this time.." "and this one is from blahblahblah.." "oh and this time, this was so funny! yadda yadda.." You'd think I was showing a scrapbook!

We had Polly declawed when she was spayed at about 7 months, the vet suggested it exactly in the "Would you like fries with that?" tone, and my mom and I didn't really know exactly what it entailed. I, too, felt and still feel awful for doing that to her, even though she's almost 15 years old now with no behavior problems. When she came home from surgery though, she wouldn't pee in a litter box of shredded newspaper, so we put a tiny bit of litter in there and she went right away, and of course her paws got infected soon after too, we had to soak them in iodine stuff a few times a day for a week or so. Our other cat Cleo was declawed already when we got her from the shelter, she was a sweetie (i might be able to make a memorial cat page and talk about her in Rainbow Bridge forum someday).

Genever has claws and I delight in telling her to stop scratching the chair and cutting her nails every week or 2 (are they supposed to grow that fast??)

Scary thing is, a few days before we went to the SPCA to look at cats, we noticed in our lease that they have to be declawed!?!? Well BF and I both were against that, but we didn't want to lie either. We were in our bldg. manager's office when the shelter called to make sure it was ok for us to take home Genever (we picked her out the day before), and they must've said something about no declawing, b/c we heard her say "Declawed? Oh yeah, they have to be declawed. ....What? Really?... They cut off the finger? Oh my god that's terrible!...No, no it doesn't have to be declawed then.." So that issue was settled then. Another human educated about the horrors of declawing. When we went to pick up Genever, I thanked the lady at the SPCA for telling the manager about it.

Thinking about it, I should talk to someone and see if they'll change that part of the standard lease, because other people might not question it and just get their cat's hands chopped!

Growing up all the cats I knew had claws. Declawing was never mentioned by anyone. The first time I heard about it wasn't until I was in high school.

The first time I met a declawed cat was when I was in my twenties. A co-worker had two Persians that were front declawed. At the time I thought it was odd but the two cats and the co-worker didn't seem too concerned.

All along I had more or less known it was an operation that removed claws. Silly me I thought that since it was done under anesthesia that it was painless.

It wasn't until the subject came up on another board that I was on that I actually read about the procedure and what it actually was. One woman on that board had all her cats four paw declawed. Claimed it was for her health not the cat's. Thought she was such a good person because after all she was saving the poor homeless cat's life.

Now I am so against it I almost cry looking at cats that I know have been declawed for the convenience of the owner and that owner sees nothing wrong with it.

I do however, have lots of sympathy for the people who were talked into it and had no idea what they were doing and now suffer for it themselves.

I didn't have any pets except birds and fish until I was 10 (my dad was in the Navy and my mom didn't want the problems of moving with pets). We got 2 kittens in 1989. My mom asked me if I thought they should be de-clawed. She explained that she never really thought de-clawing was a good thing, but if I really wanted "my" kittens de-clawed, she'd go along with it. Now I'm a little appalled that a parent would allow a 10-year-old to make that choice, but my mom always sought my opinion on everything. Although she didn't give me any choice on spaying! She thought 3 kids was quite enough, she didn't want to deal with kittens. Plus we were all very aware (even at that age) of the difficulty of finding GOOD homes for kittens, and the cruelty that comes along with the bad homes.

Fortunately, not knowing anything about the procedure except that my cats wouldn't have claws anymore, I made the right decision. Mainly because I liked to take one kitten (the other one was too shy to go out) to the park on a leash, and I'd let her climb trees, and I didn't want to stop that. Of course, we also didn't know about scratching-post training, and they just shredded our couch. But oh well. It was just a couch. It had Kool-Aid stains and throw-up on it anyway .

As a teen, I really didn't think too much about it. A few friends had de-clawed cats, and I kind of thought it was mean, but had no particular reason for thinking that. Most of them were allowed outside, and I know I thought that was a VERY bad idea.

Then, when I was 17 or so, I suscribed to "The Whole Cat Journal" and they had an article on de-clawing. Wow! I had no idea how AWFUL the procedure is and how many possible side effects there are. From then on I became the "anti-declawing zealot"!

Unfortunately the vets here are very much into the "do you want fries with that" mentality, and I've had to refuse many de-claws. My vet doesn't push, but he will do a de-claw if the owner asks, without trying to educate the owner about the procedure. Most of the cats I know are de-clawed, although I've been able to influence a few friends not to de-claw their cats, which makes me feel great! Unfortuntely, a couple of them have really had to fight their vets about it, which is not something a new cat owner should have to do.

NO cat in my care will EVER be de-clawed, no matter what! And I will continue to try to convince my friends and acquaintances to reconsider de-clawing their cats. Even if it means fighting with their vets.