Midnight Emerald

I keep thinking about you and your beautiful Midnight and hoping you have managed to convince your mom not to have him declawed.
Hugs for you and a X for his furry head

Hi Krista. What a beautiful cat your Midnight Emerald is and the name is spot on.

Where I live declawing is considered an act of animal cruelty and there are laws against it. When laws are installed usually some people disagree, but in this case nobody feels any need for allowing declawing, never ever. It's like we don't cut off the fingers of children who pick their nose either... 😉

I hope Midnight is allowed to keeps his claws. No cat deserves having it's fingertips cut off. He is perfect as he is.

What a good looking cat you have man.My blood runs cold to think your mom wants him to suffer having his toe ends hacked off. People will have told her its not cruel and that after the operation cats are OK.But man they are never OK.
Some people dont know that cats hide their pain and they dont think about how a cat must feel taken to a strange place,put to sleep and wake up in drastic pain with their toe ends gone.Honest Im a grown man and it makes me cry.
Make your mom look at those links and horror stories and all.
I dont agree with punishing cats cos they don't understand why, so squirting your Midnight with water isnt a good idea.Cats just get frightened of people who punish them.In my opinion Ruths advice to teach him to use his scratching post is right.I taught all my kittens and cats that way, I heap praise upon them man when they use their scratchers and Ive never had any furniture damaged.
Dont let your lovely cat join all the rest suffering man.Dont let any vet who declaws cats anywhere near yours, they only want your money, they dont care your cat will be crippled to get that money.
Ed

Hi Krista,

I cant really add to the excellent advice that has gone before except to say I totally agree with how unnatural and painful de-clawing is. Also as others have said, it brings its own problems. It will lead to even more issues that are difficult to deal with both for the owner and the cat.

As Bob has said there are so many other options that work and will lead to a more contented life for the cat (and the owner!).

Nick

You've seen the posts describing what declawing really is, so now I'll let you in on how I keep my cats from tearing the house up with their claws. First off, the advice you were given about a scratching post was spot on. I've had success with spraying the post with catnip spray, you can get it at your local pet store. Spray it on, and Midnight will go crazy on that post... where he's supposed to. I have a pretty big house, so my cats have their own room with all of their climbing furniture and scratching posts. While you may not be able to do this, you only have one cat, so you'd need less area. Keeping his scratching post in one corner may give him a sense of territory and he'll associate that area with scratching. You can also get sprays to use where you DON'T want him to scratch. That will keep him off of the furniture. You can also keep his nails trimmed. Once you learn how to do it, it's really easy to keep up on it. Just make sure you just clip the tips and NOT into the pink part (the quick). It's usually easier to do this when he's sleeping, he'll be less inclined to give you trouble.
When you DO see him scratching where he's not supposed to, yelling at him or anything else that would scare him is NOT the way to teach him... that would only cause more bad behavior. The best way is to simply get yourself a squirt bottle with water in it and give him a little spritz. Water won't hurt him, but he won't like it. Cats really don't like water hitting their fur or skin. Also, the sudden sqirt of water will surprise him. Try to make sure he doesn't see you do it, he won't know where it came from and he'll think that it will happen every time he scratches there. After a few squirts, he'll learn not to scratch those areas. Add to it by giving him praise and petting him when he scratches his post, and he'll quickly learn where scratching is acceptable.

Oh please don't get your beautiful kitty declawed!!! Declawing is incredibly cruel, and only the ignorant and/or uneducated will have their cats declawed.

Think about it this way, a cat being declawed is the same as a human's fingers and toes being amputated. Actually I think it's worse, because it leaves the cats in a life time of pain. Your cat is so young, please don't wreck it's life...

Please research the declawing method before you decide to put Midnight through such a cruel process. I have worked in a vets office and seen this cruel operation first hand. PLEASE dont do that to your kitty. There are other alternatives to this cruel process.

Here is a quick selection of links for mother - there are many more:

Cats are digitigrades stop declawing digitigrades

Declawing: A Physical Therapist Assistant's Perspective

Declawing Turns Good Cats to Bad

Laser Surgery for Declawing Cats

There are over 60 pages on declawing. These are a more or less random selection of 4. Please digest them. Thank you.

Your cat is gorgeous and declawing him would be an awful thing to do.
Have your mom look at his beautiful eyes. After the pain and shock of that operation many cats eyes are dim forever as they never recover.
Have her look at all these things that can go wrong

and often do.
Don't look yourself as you already know how cruel it would be to do this to Midnight.
You deserve to keep your healthy happy cat. Tell your mom if she loves you she won't do this.

Hello Krista, Midnight Emerald is such a beautiful cat and it seems he has a beautiful personality too, so it is vitally important that you stand up to your mother on this issue and save him from being disabled by the amputation of the ends of each of his toes.
Can you start by asking your mother to tell you what she thinks declawing is and why she feels it is necessary, and then using your PC and the link supplied by Ruth show her exactly what really happens when a cat is declawed and explain that declawing is so much more than the name implies, tell her it isn't just the claws that are removed but the ends of the toes and tell her that many cats are never the same again after being declawed, that some become aggressive and bite even those they love and that some stop using the litter box afterwards because it hurts their poor paws to walk on, and rake in, the litter. Show her pictures and written proof and then tell her you are not prepared to allow your cat to be subject to this. You can see some pictures here, but be warned they are not pleasant to look at (you will need to copy and paste the link)

I don't know what age you are Krista but from your intelligent post I think that you are probably old enough to stand firm on this and convince your mother, and I'd advise you to stick to it and use any means you can to put your opinion over to your mother in an adult way and save your cats precious toes.

Just got in from a fund raising event for our local animal sanctuary ...about on my last leg now lol and loads to do....will post some piccys later.

Hi Keeka, I don't think your mother can know what declawing realy is, as most people think it's simply removing the claws.But it isn't, it's the amputation of the cats last toe joints,it's a very painful operation which turns a perfectly healthy cat into a disabled cat and many cats have physical and mental problems from the operation.Because their toe stumps hurt so much at first, manty cats stop using the litter tray, they mess on the carpet instead and they never forget that first pain so they do this for life. Many declawed cats start biting because they are defenceless without claws and most are depressed and change personality from a happy cat to a miserable cat.
Cats need their claws to exercise properly, they dig them in to stretch their leg, shoulder, stomach and back muscles. Because declawed cats can't do this, most develop painful arthritis.
Please get your mother to read this written by a vet.Print it off and put it in front of her if you have to:
http://www.littlebigcat.com/index.php?action=library&act=show&item=002
Why does your mother want Midnight declawed ? Have you got a tall strong scratching post for him ?Show him how to use it by dragging your own nails down while he watches, then gently lift his front paws up until he has a go himself.If he goes to scratch where he shouldn't, simply lift him to his post until he learns.Cats are very intelligent and he will soon learn if you are patient.
Good luck, please don't let anyone cripple your beautiful cat.

Keeka and her mom need your help too. Michael, if you could add some of the better links to make it easy for Keeka to guide her mother to some of the excellent articles here at POC.

Keeka, another interesting note, I have a cat who came to me on his own. He was homeless. This week he had some dental work done, and I asked if they could trim his nails while he was in twighlight, as he is poly-dactyl and one of his du-claws was curving around on itself. Well, they did a lovely job trimming his nails, and you can't believe the difference for him. He can play harder and faster without the sharp tips, where as before, he would keep getting stuck on the carpet or blanket or whatever he was playing on. Just a tiny nip on the tip goes a long way to keep the scratching down.

I hope your mom sees the light, that it is a cruel thing to mutilate a cat by taking off his precious fingers. As that is what declawing does.

Enjoy your beautiful cat, Midnight.

dw
California

Thanks for visiting and sharing and showing us Midnight. The name is great. And your affection and tender care for your cat companion is great too.

I wouldn't normally do this but I am going to strongly advise that you disobey your mother on the matter of declawing Midnight.

At the same time I would ask your mother to read all or at least some of the pages on this site to do with declawing cats. There are lots of articles here:

Declawing cats

Message to your mother:

You must be a good mother as your daughter is good. But if it is true that you are insisting on declawing Midnight I would plead with you to reconsider.

It is simply wrong. It doesn't matter how you look at it. Lets ask what the cat would like. Sure, a cat might damage an armchair but not much else. And so what. What is more important - an armchair or doing the right thing? Break free of the possessions/consumer culture and think bigger and better.