To Claw or De-claw

As I've mentioned elsewhere in this forum, we have a kitty, Opie, who I raised from birth. She is a Manx, which I will tell you all about, but, another time. For today, I want to share my thoughts about de-clawing.

My affection for Opie is unbreakable! The bond that we formed as she grew from that measly, 3 oz., scraggly ball of fur to her full-grown, 12 lb. adult, is forever. Typical, natural cat-behavior was exhibited at each growth stage, especially the need to "claw" things like the seats on my fine dining room furniture, sheers, draperies, towels... you get the idea, right?

I began polling friends and relatives who have cats, were their cats de-clawed when they adopted them or did they have them de-clawed or do their cats still have their claws?

The majority of pollsters' cats had been de-clawed prior to adoption. That made it easy for them, not so easy for me to decide what to do with my little darling. I investigated and read the pros and cons of the surgery. I spoke with two Veterinarians, both had opposing opinions. Ugh! It seemed as though both sides of the argument had valid points, making it more difficult to make a decision.


And then, I thought all my problems were over when I found the glue-on shields for a cat's claws. (See Opie in the photo.) But, Opie had other ideas. She preferred the au naturel look.

My little kitty was so talented in devising ways to remove those cute pink shields from her claws. She quickly realized that chewing was useless, it was much quicker to catch the edge of the claw shield on a window grate (the kind to keep dogs from scratching storm doors.) When I heard her whimpering and found her hanging on the grate, I was horrified that we may not be able to release her without tearing the claw completely out since the shields are glued on with something like crazy glue.

Somehow, Opie finagled her way loose from the grate, but, I was so happy when the claw-shields began to fall off by themselves as her natural claws grew out.

Other families have had great luck with the "manicured" look, but for my little wild one, we'll stick to natural, at least until she is a little (or a lot) older and less apt to tear her claws out.

I hoped the nail caps would have been the perfect alternative to de-clawing, but, I seemed to be back at square one. Even though the claw caps did not work for us, I simply cannot fathom putting my kitty through the surgery since I learned how it is performed. The distal phalanx is cut off, which is like removing the first joint of our fingers.

I would like to keep that first joint of my fingers and I think Opie feels likewise.