Declawed Abyssinian Cat Reilly
by Jody
(Foster City, CA)
Thank you so much for speaking out about the horrors of declawing. I am not going to even watch your videos because I am sure that I could not stand it.
I have one gorgeous 9-year-old ruddy Abyssinian, who I am sure would do a number on my furniture – he’s a big, strong boy with huge claws that he readily allows me to trim – and he sure hates double-stick tape, the kindest and most effective anti-claw protection any couch ever had.
Since I suffer from the sin of having to work for a living, and an Aby cat is so human-oriented that it is downright mean to leave one alone all day, I decided to rescue another Aby, and the So Cal Abyssinian Rescue organization was happy to oblige. The same day that I called, a young blue male was dumped at the West LA animal shelter.
But the future was bleak for Reilly. He bit everyone who came near him, and was ranked by the shelter as a “vicious” cat – high on the list to be put down. It is pretty unlikely that he would have been adopted if not for the rescue organization, and they were more than happy to give him to me as I had an extra bedroom that he could acclimatize in.
He was so fearsome, in fact, that nobody bothered to find out that he had been declawed. I suspected it, but did not really know until he allowed me to actually touch him.
It’s five years later. My two Abys have bonded as if they had been born together. And lack of claws – in addition to small size – has never prevented 7-lb Reilly from “giving the business” to my 12-lb Bugsy. His favorite thing is to bite Bugsy in the butt, which always results in much chasing and rolling around on the floor. Bugsy formerly appeared annoyed; not anymore.
Anyway, whoever did that horrible thing to Reilly, removing his claws (and it was done the “expensive” way, which is why no one could tell) – someone probably paid $1000 for a purebred cat, then spent close to $2000 to have his claws taken away – hooray for Hollywood, indeed).
Jody
