March 2010

Meet Jazzmine, the adorable brown tabby cat I rescued from a local shelter. She’s just shy of ten months old and, like most kittens, she loves to claw at things.

Before I adopted her, I did a lot of research on the clawing vs. declawing debate, and ultimately decided against declawing her. Now I certainly don’t condemn folks who have their cats declawed, but my decision was simply a matter of personal conviction based on my research. So I’d definitely recommend you make an informed decision for you and your cat by learning more about onychectomy and discussing it with your vet.

I knew the trade off of not having her declawed was routine trips to either the vet or pet groomer to have her claws trimmed. I also knew, based on my friend’s experience with her own cats’ hatred of getting them trimmed, that this would be no walk in the park. One of the first times I took Jazzmine to the vet for her kitten vaccinations, I had my vet trim her claws. It took four – FOUR! – of us holding down a six-pound cat, and she had to be muzzled because she bit one of the vet’s assistants. And the screams . . . oh, the screams . . .

After this particularly harrowing and traumatic experience, I decided to look for other alternatives. I tried double-sided tape on her favorite places to scratch on my couch. She liked the double-sided tape, so that really didn’t fix the problem. I tried dousing her with water when I caught her in the act. She likes water, too. This was not going to be an easy task.

Continue reading Soft Claws: Scratching the Surface . . .