Jamie, that's OK, I know you just feel strongly about it, as I do too. In fact, it is the reason we don't do many adoptions - it is so hard to find committed adopters who will keep the cats indoors AND not declaw them. I do educate everyone who says they want a declawed kitty or will declaw it. By carrying on an in-depth conversation I can usually figure out who really has changed their mind after I tell them all the bad things about declawing, and generally I will take a chance on those. We give "Paws come w/ claws" brochure plus articles from Cat Fancy, etc., on training, detailed instructions on making large post w/ perch or perches, "Living w/ cat's claws" (another brochure), etc., etc., and follow up. Occasionally, we have discovered accidentally that an adopter has declawed anyway - I absolutely hate it when that happens, but there is little you can do - we just try to stay in touch w/ them so that if problems develop, we can make suggestions, and if they give up on the cat it will come back to us (our contract says they cannot give it ! away w/out our permission, but if we are ugly to them about it they will hide the fact they've done it and if problems come up and they don't want the cat, they'll "unload" it somewhere else and lie to us, so we try not to go off the deep end. We have one adopter (and hubby) who are in every other way super adopters - treat the cats like their children (they have no kids), lovely home, plenty of $ for optimum vet care - but they declawed the first cat they adopted from me, despite swearing they wouldn't (their other four were already declawed). Later they fostered a black kitty, Valentino, and dutifully brought him for adopted for weeks and weeks and no-one took him because he was scaredy for a while, so they decided to keep him. We were sure Kathy was going to declaw him, so started to say as she presented us w/ the adoption check on her birthday (hubby's present to her) that we had to talk, and she blew up at us in public and went running off into The Fresh Market crying.! She kept the cat and for months and months we didn't speak. She would never listen to any of our "arguments" against declawing - had an answer for all of them, even tho all her other cats have problems that I am convinced are classic "declawed cat" problems. Meanwhile she took in two scared strays she trapped, and declawed them, too, but eventually we all began talking again and we believe she has not declawed Vally. But you just can't talk to her about it. It's crazy, because her husband called me at 7 a.m. one day worried stiff because he'd trimmed Vally's claws and cut one a little too much and made it bleed (which as we all know hurts us a whole lot more than it hurts the cat) and if he can be so upset about trimming a little too much of the claw off, how can they send them to the vets to have their toes chopped off???? One kitty here in Columbia had to have its leg amputated after infection set in after a declaw; another at my new vet's recently, a darling little silver persian probably only 4 months old had been declawed elsewhere and my new vet was trying to save its front paws, but told me they'd probably have to be amputated. The owner wasn't giving up on the kitty and didn't want it euthanized (she seemed contrite that she'd caused it these problems), but I wonder if she will still want it later if it is uncomfortable in the litterbox and starts going on the carpet? Well, I could tell you hundreds of stories - maybe some other time. Get your FREE Email and Voicemail at Lycos Communications at http://comm.lycos.com
