Forum Index
»
Off-Topic
Those of you with cats - are they declawed
![[Post New]](/jforum/templates/default/images/icon_minipost_new.gif){kind=icon}
Anonymous
|
We have an indoor 3 year old cat. Wish we could let him out sometimes but we live on a corner so there is a bit of traffic though a not a ton and there are a lot of big cats in the neighborhood, plus we've seen all kinds of critters around - including a fox.
Anyway, he is indoors, we have a 10 month old. The cat is good with the baby - pretty uninterested in her and used to her by now. Pretty patient with her when I let her pet him though he does walk away after about 30 seconds. I am of the camp that you should not declaw a cat because it is cruel. However, we have gotten scratched by him by accident. He is on our lap and we are wearing shorts and someone comes to the door and he takes off and boom - scratches. That kind of thing. He doesn't do it intentionally. Obviously as baby gets older we will continue to watch her and the cat but I am just afraid she will be like 3 years old and pick him up and get scratched. What do people do? Just watch like a hawk or declaw??? Please don't flame me. It's been a tough week - I'm honestly wondering and open to suggestions from both sides. |
Anonymous
|
So your cat isn't aggressive? And you are willing to cut off a part of his body just to avoid a hypothetical accidental scratch to your child?
I don't think a scratch every now and then will hurt your child, unless you've raised them in a bubble where they can't get skinned knees and the like. |
Anonymous
I'll take the flames. I have had 4 cats in my life and all have been declawed. One lived to almost 21 years old, another just shy of her 19th birthday. I now have 2 three year olds. All four have been loved, nurtured and indulged. I can see where people might have a problem with declawing, but when I adopted the first two I knew little about the declaw controversy, I didn't even think about it, I just had them declawed. With the second pair, I had read and heard all of the cons, and tried the post, the claw caps, etc. and these were not working. So I decided to have them declawed while they were being spayed. If I had a cat who successfully responded to the other methods I would not have declawed, but this was not the case. I refuse to apologize for it. My cats are strictly indoor cats and they live better than most of the HUMANS in the world. |
Anonymous
|
I have a cat and 2 babies - the only reason I let the cat stay is bc I declawed her when she was a kitten - the dangling off the couch and the curtains was too much for my OCD husband to handle. I have read and heard that if you are going to declaw to do it when they are kittens and not older cats. I am so happy mine is declawed bc both of my kids run after her, pull her tail, her hair and pretty much terrorize her - she does love the attention and plays with them as well but there are times when the kids have been aggressive (when we were in the "be gentle" learning stage) and I think until they were about 18 months old - they were rough with her and could have been clawed up pretty good had she had claws. Now they play nicely - the cat and kids.
Although it is easy to have your eyes on the kids at all times, I found it more difficult to control the cat. At the end of the day, it is an animal. Also - my cat has always been and will always will be an indoor cat - if they are declawed - they have to be indoor cats bc there would be no way to protect themselves outside. |
Anonymous
| 2 cats and an 8 mo old. So far no incidents. The cats are doing a great job avioding DD. |
Anonymous
| pp here, they are not declawed |
jsteele
Site Admin Online
Site Admin Online
|
We have two cats. Neither is declawed. One keeps her distance from the kids, while the other is very patient. However, even the patient one has her limits and both boys have been scratched at one time or the other. Generally, they were harassing the cat and she retaliated. Strangely, the cat would let both boys get away with murder during their first couple of years. But, once she thought they were old enough to know better, she became less tolerant. They pretty quickly learned not to mistreat her. I tried to keep her claws trimmed as much as possible and punished her when she scratched them (even though she was mostly just protecting herself).
|
Anonymous
|
2 cats. Neither declawed. I personally would not do it and believe it is extremely cruel. But, if it is the difference between giving away and keeping your cat, then you do it, I guess. I once volunteered for a local shelter that did not adopt to people who would declaw (this is common). One cat was on "death row" literally, as in if she did not get adopted that day would be euthanized. I still remember her name, Nelly, and that she was a young (about a yr old) black and white kitty. An app came in for a good home. But they wanted to declaw. They denied the app and she was euthanized. That never made sense to me.
All cats I had growing up were declawed by my parents and they were (indoor only) very happy, spoiled, loved kitties. Again, I wouldn't do it ever. But . . . you know, there are worse things. |
Anonymous
| As for scratching (PP here), eh, it happens. My DD has quickly learned how to handle the cats and avoid scratches. It is not the end of the world if the kid gets scratched, imo, and pets are a great learning tool (gentle touching, boundaries, empathy, responsibility). |
Anonymous
|
This is not something to worry about. A declawed cat who wishes to harm a child will just bite instead.
The scratching you are talking about can be mitigated by keeping the nails clipped. Declawing is cruel, and does NOT make a cat harmless. My previous cat (who had been declawed by the previous owners) was clearly traumatized by it - you could tell by her reaction if you went near her paws. |
Anonymous
|
OP here - Thanks everyone. I am really just a worrier and I have visions of an accidental scratch of the face....I just worry about that along with everything else. But the chances of that happening with a tame cat are slim, and we will just be really vigilant about keeping the claws trimmed. He is pretty good about letting us do it.
I have always thought declawing is a bit cruel - I've heard it really messes with the cat's head and they could end up being more aggressive and becoming biters, which our cat really doesn't do, he is really very sweet. When we got the kitten kids were so far from our mind - our baby came a couple years earlier than expected! But I think after hearing so many people with cats with claws and kids, I think you can make it work. Worse comes to worse, if I have doubts the cat can go live with my parents - we would see him all the time and he would have a good home - but hopefully it won't come to that! |
Anonymous
|
I was worried about my cat with my kids but she never hurt a hair on their heads. I taught them to treat her gently and with respect but she usually avoided them. She was not aggressive but would sometimes attack my feet hanging out of my bed, but seemed to know the kids were off limits.
We lost her last year and miss her dearly, so my only advice is to love her up and not worry in the abstract. |
Anonymous
| We had a fairly aggressive male cat who had been declawed by somebody else before we adopted him. This particular cat was very conscious of his hierarchical place on the family totem pole, so when DS was a toddler the cat would go after him -- but because his claws had been removed, he bit DS instead. So the declawing didn't really matter except perhaps for saving our furniture. Your cat may be less agressive. |
Anonymous
| If your cat is not otherwise aggressive, I wouldn't worry about it. Our cat completely ignored DD until she got mobile enough to chase/corner/pull ears and tail. She only lashes out when she is really pushed, and DD has had a few minor scratches. We got nail caps, which seem to be working well so far; we'll probably continue to use those until DD is old enough to really understand how to be gentle. |
Anonymous
| Could 10:46 say more about the nail caps? These sound useful -- are they to protect against aggressive clawing, or against destruction of your furniture? How do the cats deal with them? |