To Declaw or Not to Declaw?
The day we bring home our furry little feline friends is one full of wondrous beginnings. Watching our kittens, or cats, explore their new environment is akin to a child explore the newness of the world around them.
It doesn’t take long before we realize that our kitties still have strong instinctual ties to their ancestral roots. In every one of our domesticated cats resides a raw Bengalese tiger on the prowl. Unfortunately, your new cat views that expensive suede sofa you just bought as a tempting mound of scratching goodness in your domestic jungle!
The decision to declaw is usually inspired by situations like these. Let’s face it. We love our pets and obviously wish to keep on loving them. Shredded furniture, dinette sets and tattered living wear furniture won’t necessarily inspire this love!
To achieve a peaceful and lovable cohabitation with your cat, there are a number of solutions available to you. These solutions can be surgical or temporary non-surgical solutions.
After adopting our cat, we were faced with this dilemma. We were well aware of the controversy surrounding declawing and made it a point to do sufficient, if not excessive research about the subject.
We were warned by some friends of the anti-declawing philosophy. They cited declawing as inhumane, similar to cutting off the fingers of humans and resulting in major behavioral dysfunction after the surgery.
On the flip-side, we also have a large number of friends with cats that had already underwent the procedure. In every one of these cases, our friends swore by the procedure and highly recommended it. Their cats didn’t seem to possess the psychological issues that our anti-declawing friends warned us about! Most importantly, these friends had very positive and loving relationships with their pets.
Based on this research, we decided to move ahead with the procedure and opted for the more expensive laser declawing. This procedure greatly reduces recovery time and post-operative pain and soreness.
After a brief recovery period, Tofu was back to her old self. She still goes through the motions of clawing the sofa, but without any damage! Overall, she seems none the worse for wear and our relationship with her only improved afterwards.
During our search through many shelters, we encountered hundreds, if not thousands of kittens and cats. Realizing that most will not be adopted and may be euthanized, it’s virtually impossible not to have a heavy heart for these helpless animals. Our belief is that while no declawing procedure is perfect, any solution that makes it easier to bring more cats into the homes of loving families is a good one.
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