Keetoom!

[eurydicebound]

There is a cat prowling around my house right as we speak. She is a cream-colored cat with ginger ears and a bit of buff in its coat. The vet tells me she is a medium-hair cat. She has extra toes on both front feet. It has ice-blue eyes, and she purrs constantly. My friend who lives in the apartment complex where we found her suspects her of being at least part Maine Coon Cat. Her microchip says her name is Polly, but if her owner cannot be found, we'll probably call her Angel.

We went over to a friend's apartment last night to meet her puppy and go to the hot tub for a bit. As we're exiting the hot tub, this cat appeared and kept coming over to look at us, then shying away. We walked back to the apartment and it followed us, eventually starting to meow. David and April, one of our friends, went down to look at it. She let them pick her up and bring her inside without the slightest fuss, apparently quite relieved to be indoors again. The friends had a collapsible cage that we borrowed. One of the friends was allergic to cats, so she couldn't stay there. We couldn't tell whether she'd been declawed or not (not as it turns out, they were just cut very short) and she had no collar, and a bit of stuff stuck in her tail fur) and we couldn't just leave her out there, so we took her home.

She began purring as soon as we let her out of the cage in the house. She slept on a corner of my bed. I've never seen a cat like this before, and I admit to being a sad she had a microchip. Friends are looking for flyers in their neighborhood, and I've started checking the papers for "lost" ads. I'm going to put a "found" ad in this weekend.

Although -- The address of the lady listed in the microchip is hell and gone from Kirkland where we found her, though, and only gives a P.O. Box. The phone number apparently hasn't been right for some time. We have a work number, but we've thus far been unable to reach anyone there, and the two ladies mentioned on the answering machine... well, neither one matches the name given on the microchip.

I've never had a cat, but I'm already loathe to give her up. Keep your fingers crossed for me.

Comments

[suikerspinner.livejournal.com]

Sound advice if you think removing fingernails is a good idea. The way I see it, you get a cat, you get the bad with the good and it's not particularly fair to surgically remove the bad just because it's inconvienient for your furniture.

[themoocow.livejournal.com]

Actually, you're removing the first knuckle (if you wish to compare cats to humans).

One of the things I love about you anti-declawing whackos is that you make it sound like I used a rusty pair of pliers and some cheap whisky to declaw my cats. The truth is vastly different, but I don't suppose you really care about facts or truth. I'll explain the procedure anyway, on the off chance you're interested. The cat is placed under sedation for the operation, the claws are removed in a simple procedure, the wound is cauterized with a heat gun, and then the paws are bandaged. For two weeks the cat is given anti-inflamatories and pain killers to reduce post surgery pain and chance of infection. Every 48 hours for the first week you take the cat back to the vet to have the wounds checked, to make sure they healing properly. When all is said and done, the cat probably won't even notice it's claws are gone. As a matter of fact, removing her front claws does not seem to have done anything to impede Cancer from climbing the door frames.

The way I see it, if you're going to get a cat, you should actually care about it's long term health. Any vet with half a brain will tell you that declawing your cat is harmless procedure that will improve the overall health of your cat by reducing the friction between you and it. Cats are incredibly empathic, like most animals, and even if you don't yell at it, it will know you're upset at it for clawing up the couch (unless of course you're one of those people who enjoys living like poor people).

Animals have very short memories. Two weeks after you declaw it, it won't remember. Animals generally have to be subject to extreme trauma and/or continuously repeated trauma in order for it to effect them long term. Declawing is hardly extreme trauma, and it saves them from the continuous trauma of always getting in trouble for doing something they do by instinct. Morris and Cancer are now free to sharpen their non-existent claws on the furniture all they want (which they do).

Operations such as declawing and neuter/spaying are neccesary surgeries to allow an animal to interact with the modern world with considerably less stress then they otherwise would. Far from being "acts of cruelty" as the psychos often term them, they're actions taken by owners that care very deeply for their cats.