Another Animal Post
**I'm just updating this post because I feel too rediculous doing yet another post about my animals! Last night Eric and I were messing around online, reading about Akitas and such. We happened upon a "The Best Breed For You" quiz on Animal Planet. We fully expected to come back as Lab people and for Akita to be at the bottom of the barrel. But we answered the questions truthfully and were then SHOCKED to see that both Akitas and Huskies were a 96% match for us! Hee Hee!**
Maybe I should just change this into a pet blog! I have blogged ridiculous amounts about animals lately. I guess that says that nothing too too dramatic is going on in the rest of my life (well, except for that kidney transplant thing)!
So I guess it is just my time to stress about our animals. Last week there was Cai, and the liability we had with her about biting others. So we made that tough decision....
Now it's Bangle (our cat). She is the most awesome cat. She is so awesome that she's almost like a dog! LOL! She loves to cuddle and be with us as a family, and even plays fetch with her toys! But the thing is, I am having nightmares about her scratching up our leather furniture. I was kind of embarrassed to share that we got a new leather sofa and chair, but I'm coming out of the closet. Eric has always wanted it...and it was a great deal...and so we did it. But ooops! There is that whole issue of us having a kitten!
So I sat down and started to google "declaw cat." I want to KEEP my kitty and Eric will strangle her if she scratches up the new couch (not really, but he would really probably daydream about it)! First thing that pops up is an ALTERNATIVE! YIPPEE!!!!! So our "Soft Paws" are on their way (rush shipping)!! Thank goodness.
Kilo aka Ki Ki is still doing pretty awesome. No mistakes in the house at all. She just GETS the whole house training perfectly. All other training is going fabulously as well, although she does have a bit of a weakness for cords. As in she likes to chew them. But in all other ways she seems perfect so far. =-)
Well, we have the first virus of the season traveling through the family. Samren was down this weekend, and now Eric's down with it. Ahh...live in the Gillispie fam!
Anita
8 comments:
Over the course of the past 15 years, I've had a total of 7 cats. And I've had every single one of them declawed. If you have any quesitons, I'm more than happy to share.
HAM, I didn't mean to offend! Promise! I just now it's a hot topic for cat owners and honestly wanted to not have to deal with people commenting about how it is "wrong" to do that. Obviously I'm okay with it or I wouldn't have been googling it! But I am glad to have found an alternative to try to save the $$$ it would cost for declawing! How much does it usually cost you? I've never had it done before.
Anita
It did kinda sound like you were trying to avoid the sort of conflict that can arise on certain subjects. You didn't offend me at all, just trying to share information.
The smaller vet that I use is about $40 and when I lived in INdy, it was QUITE a bit more. More like $100-120 per cat. We ended up not getting our cat Aloha declawed right off the bad and she wreaked havoc on my newer sofa. I mean she shredded the ends. So, I was happy to spend the extra $$$ to save the rest of my furniture!
But then we only do front declaw so they don't use the furniture as a scratching post. And leave the back claws. That might not work for you though since you have leather and even back claws can puncture.
Congrats on the new sofa btw. I bet it looks AWESOME with the new floors too! Nathan would LOVE to get new leather stuff for our living room but I keep trying to hold him off until we move.
And I even shave my cats so that I don't have cat fur all over the place. how is that for causing controversy! HA
Heather you crack me up! I could care less if you shave your cat. Actually, I shaved our long-haired mama cat once (the one that died earlier this summer) and she L.O.V.E.D. it! I could tell she was so much cooler and the whole thing just seemed like a massage to her. She looked cooky though!
I would have thought declawing was much more expensive even than the $120. I have another question. Eric thinks that the claws "grow back" even after declawing. Is he totall off? That seems crazy to me!
Anita
Yeah! That's the same with our cats. They hate to get the shaving done, but the love it when their fur is off. Plus, they snuggle more on your lap!
Actually, you're both kinda right! No, normal claws do not ever grow back, but some cats have these sort of fake claws.? I'm not sure what the technical term for them is. But one of my cats has them, and they feel rough to the touch, but not like real claws that can draw blood. And those can grow back. But she's a bit of an abnormal cat anyway. I think there was a bit of inbreeding in HER line!
Anywho. . . normal claws don't grow back, so once you plunk out the $$$, you should be good to go.
We de-clawed both of our kitties too (fronts only). I think they were in the $120 range. And they definately don't grow back .
I didn't want to at first but the first time our youngest went at our living room carpet I knew it was all over... either get rid of the claws or get rid of the cat (I guess the third option was get rid of the husband but nah! I figured I should keep him around for awhile) ;)
All of our cats were adopted from the shelter as adults and were already front-declawed.
You will have to let me know how those "soft paws" work out...I'm one of those people who would have a very hard time declawing a cat if I ever got a kitten (or an adult cat that wasn't already declawed).
Chanda
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