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or you could...you know...as others have suggested...make sure the closet door is closed?! seems alot easier, cheaper and less traumatic on everyone involved...
especially sice if $500 worth of sweaters is an issue whats going to happen if hes one of the MANY cats hwo develops litterbox issues after a declaw..im pretyt sure carpets, bedding, matresse and furntiure are much more expensive than a couple sweaters.
Anywho, I never planned on declawing the cat, as I have learned over the years what that really means. But I can't be 100% perfect 24/7/365 days a year. The closet may be cracked open, I may get tired and do something else that would lead to the possibility of 'something' else getting damaged.
When you brush your teeth, or get a bath, do you make sure the water is all the way off when you're done, or before you leave the house?
How about making sure the oven's turned off before you leave for school/go to work or bed?
Because a cat is a living thing (unlike an oven or faucet), no- it should not be a lazy "out" just because barbarians make this option "available".
Pets are pets....if he does not have claws, it will be something else, he will vomit on your favorite leather jacket, or chew up your cords on the computer, or jump up on the table and knock over a large bottle of Coke...all of which Jasper, bless his little heart, has done.
Aside from going to a bookstore and thumbing through 20 books to find a good training book. Does anyone have a suggestion for a book?
Like I said, he is usually really good about not scratching things, as he has multiple beds, and a couple scratching poles/things.
But the kneeding of a 'bed' is something I thought was instinctual, and I don't want him doin that on my brand new furniture.
Yes. I would get the book HOW TO BE YOUR CAT'S BEST FRIEND. One of the chapters explains how to teach your cat "soft paw". What it says to do is when your cat is lying in your lap and kneading,lightly stroke the top of his fur on his paws in the direction the fur grows and his claws with retract. As they do calmly say "soft paw" over and over. It is easier to teach this to your cat as a kitten as I did with my first cat. But he learned it and every time he would run to the sofa and I would catch him beginning to clench in his claws, I'd say "soft paw" and he would stop and run across the room to his scratching post and continue scratching there. The first few times you may have to lift him up saying "no scratching, soft paw" and then moved him to the designated scratching area nearby. Then scratch the post yourself with your nails making the scratching sound and praise him when he does it and say something like "good scratch" and give him a treat if you can. The more positive reinforcement for scratching there you can give him the quicker he'll prefer doing it there. Actually, I gave him a sisal rope chair to scratch that was nearby that he loved to scratch. I also made sure to praise and reward him for scratching there.
Another thing you could do is keep your bedroom door and certainly your closet door shut and off limits to this cat. Next you can get inexpensive throws to put over the arms of sofas. My cat didn't like scratching the sofa if it was covered with a blanket. I also put the best furniture in the front of the house where the cat didn't always have access to and the furniture that I didn't mind the cat scratching in the back where I spent most of the time anyway.
My sister had an intact cat once. She was sure the cat would be fine, and bought sissal scratch pads, and kitty condos, and rug-trees, and so on. Well. The cat destroyed the scratch pads, destroyed the condos, and the rug trees, and then continued to the carpet, the wallpaper, and the couch. Finally, my sister declawed the cat. The cat continued the behavior, as though nothing had happened at all. The ONLY difference..was that the cat was no longer capable of destroying the furniture.
I had an intact cat that not only destroyed the furniture, she started ripping into my slippers. Her claws went the following month, and I never noticed any difference in how she walked, her behavior was exactly the same, her "clawing" habit hadn't changed at all. If anything, she was even better than ever because she could now do happy paws on my chest without drawing blood and causing me to put her back on the floor.
Perhaps part of it is how you view your cat...as a family member, or just a pet, an animal, a thing in the house, or a possession?
I view my cat as a family member. I was adamant about not even getting a "real" pet (in other words, anything beyond a fish) until we were prepared to be able to treat it as a family member. So, although my children are definitely the higher priority, there should be no conflicts of interest there. To draw a parallel, when my children were toddlers, if they were apt to knock over expensive things, or put small objects in their mouths, etc. my solution would not have been to surgically alter their hands, duct tape their mouth, or tie them up, or do anything restrictive to their persons. It would have been to alter the environment so that they couldn't hurt themselves or destroy things that mattered to me. I would not have purchased a $9,000 Italian leather sofa and let my kid spill grape juice on it. I would also not purchase one of them knowing full well that I have a cat, or that I would be getting a cat. I put away the dreamcatcher I made, which was previously hanging on the wall, so the cat I adopted wouldn't destroy it, because it's important to me.
When you have a family member who has certain needs, you adjust your environment to accomodate them. You don't adjust the family member to fit into your environment.
But that's just me I guess.
Is a cat better off declawed than abandoned, or surrendered to a shelter? Yeah. If you've reached the point where those are the options you're looking at...well I guess it's the lesser of those evils. But I still think it's wrong.
It seems some cats do fine after being declawed (their owners claim) and some don't (as seen in every animal clinic). Some suffer the loss of toes or even entire paws. Others live in pain the rest of their lives, tendons contracted or other problems owners seem unaware of. Some suffer real personality changes and others stop using the litterbox. It's a chance you take when mutilating their paws for your own convenience. And de-clawing is a mutilation/amputation. It also doesn't guarantee them a home for life as seen in any shelter, Rescue and on Craigslist. They're even picked up as strays.
Anywho, I never planned on declawing the cat, as I have learned over the years what that really means.
I will look into buying a big ol cat jungle gym like one poster mentioned above. Problem is, I know sometimes cats don't always take to them and use them. Plus, this guy is about 15 lbs min, so he is a good size kitty. Will he even fit on one of those things?
Sooo glad to read that....I mean it's pretty drastic when you have to cripple your pet to control them..Sure your "good sized kitty" will be able to use and enjoy a scratch post...you know they're really not hard at all to make...tiny bit of wood and some carpeting...some pretty good ones in the second hand stores too...I think your cat will love it, and you won't need to worry about leaving that closet door open occasionally.
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