Family Squabble

[blas87]

My mom is expected to go through menopause a little earlier than a normal woman, due to a complete hysterectomy she had in her 30s. She's in her mid 40s, so that may be the case. I'm not sure. I go there in the morning, get my free food, bs with my dad, feed and water my pets (sometimes brush the dog) and get the hell out. Laundry days aren't so bad because I'm all alone after Dad leaves.

My brother's girlfriend got a kitten when she moved out, apparently she couldn't handle living alone and had to move back, her parents hate cats so my parents offered to take this one in. I haven't met it yet, I like cats though, I'm sure he'll be a good kitty. I'm worried that Baby will attack him, though. She only got along with FatCat because she grew up with her. When we temporarily had my grandma's cat, Fanta, she spazzed on him quite a few times, and he was easily two or three times her size.

[Andara Bledin]

Also, the way I see it, I am a long haired female who sheds like a golden retriever and I also shave my legs and other areas often.

As much as I hate the place I live now (ants in the walls, leaking windows when it rains, gang shootings annually), the plumbing is impressively robust. We have yet to have a drain issue despite having two heavy shedders (me an the boyfriend), although our being on the 2nd (of only 2) floor may help.

^-.-^

[BlaqueKatt]

Parents agreed to what Katt described if we can find a vet that would do it. So far, no vets around here do that procedure.

I found one that may do it-they're in New Berlin-not 100% sure how far that is, or if you want to go that far. I have PMed you the address and phone number if you want to talk with them-maybe they know of someone closer to you if nothing else...

[Gravekeeper]

Yeah, no vet around here will do a declaw these days. My mom has a rescue cat that was declawed years ago and the poor thing is completely neurotic because of it. Absolutely everything scares her because she has no means of defending herself, so she flips out at everything and makes as much noise as possible to try and make up for it. She won't jump under any circumstances either, because she doesn't think she'll make it as she has no claws to dig in to pull herself up.

After my mom got her it was near a month before she would even come out from under the furnance in the basement.

My own cat is a rescue cat too, and has talons like a god damn condor. But she loves her scratching post so its not really a problem. I use to trim them but she caught on to what I was up too. Now I can't get anywhere near her with the trimmers. -.-

[Salesmonkey]

It's very easy to clip the claws of cats so their scratchy behaviour does not cause damage. When 2nd lieutenant Mr. Rufus Rocket Ranger was a kitten, he would try to climb me like a tree. That hurt. I originally used a set of scissor-like things from the pet store ($3) to clip his claws, but when I lost them I found my own fingernail clippers worked fine. You only need to take off the sharp bits of the front claws- like 0.5 mm, just enough to dull them.

[Tanasi]

We don't have cats at least indoor cats but can't the vet snip some tendon near their front feet that stops them from extending their claws???
Seems like that would be less traumatic than actually removing the claws.

[Andara Bledin]

While a tendonectomy is much less harmful to a cat than having them declawed, it also requires much more maintenance on the part of the cat owners as regular claw trimming has to be performed to prevent overgrowth of the claws, since the cat can no longer maintain that on their own.

Plus, you can still end up with the same associated mental issues since the cat is still rendered mostly defenseless and still cannot climb. In any pet that climbs regularly, this can be quite traumatic.

^-.-^

[blas87]

Anyone who wants to trim her claws is more than welcome, I have enough scars from that cat from trying to give her baths, I thank you.

[telecom_goddess]

Anyone who wants to trim her claws is more than welcome, I have enough scars from that cat from trying to give her baths, I thank you.

I just thought of something...would she like that thing that basically acts like a dremel with sandpaper on it, that files their nails down? It has a guard on it so it's safe...and supposedly cats take that better. I have one but haven't tried it myself....but it's a thought.

[Andara Bledin]

Based on what Blas has said about her cat, it would take the kitty equivalent of a straightjacket to make it safe to do anything to her she didn't feel like letting you do to her.

One of the sites I visited recently mentioned that placement of the approved scratching materials is almost as important as composition. Would it be possible to move her scratching posts near where the forbidden items are?

^-.-^

[Boozy]

Anyone who wants to trim her claws is more than welcome, I have enough scars from that cat from trying to give her baths, I thank you.

I can trim my older dog's nails myself, but the younger one just ain't having it.

We bring him to the vet's to get it done. It costs me $20 a pop, and it usually takes two to three vet techs to get it done. This dog only weighs 16 lbs, but he can freak out like no one's business.

I'd urge you and your parents to look into ANY option other than declawing at this point. Your kitty's just too old. She may never fully recover.

[blas87]

You mean a pedi-paws, telecom? Yeah, not so much....tried that, got one paw finished and she nearly killed my Dad.

Have I ever mentioned that I am terrified of that cat, once she starts with the swatting and the hissing I usually keep my distance. I've ran away from her before when she started throwing a fit because she had to stay in the basement one day and she got in between me and the door and started hissing and making that awful Exorcist style growling noise. I nudger her with my foot and made a mad dash and slammed the door.

She does make use of her Emery board when there is ample catnip in it. The problem is, that last shipment they ordered, she tore into the freaking box and tore apart the bag of catnip and it was all over the livingroom and when everyone came home, she was tweeked out in a cluster of catnip.

[telecom_goddess]

You mean a pedi-paws, telecom? Yeah, not so much....tried that, got one paw finished and she nearly killed my Dad.

Have I ever mentioned that I am terrified of that cat, once she starts with the swatting and the hissing I usually keep my distance. I've ran away from her before when she started throwing a fit because she had to stay in the basement one day and she got in between me and the door and started hissing and making that awful Exorcist style growling noise. I nudger her with my foot and made a mad dash and slammed the door.

She does make use of her Emery board when there is ample catnip in it. The problem is, that last shipment they ordered, she tore into the freaking box and tore apart the bag of catnip and it was all over the livingroom and when everyone came home, she was tweeked out in a cluster of catnip.

Ok give me a few minutes while I laugh my ass off....



ok but yeah that's what I meant

[blas87]

And after all that drama, she always ends up walking up to the dog and washing the dog's face, then snuggling up against the dog while the dog wraps her tail around her.

The dog is the only thing that the cat likes. She has only hissed at the dog a few times, and that was because due to how old the dog is getting, she occasionally mistakes the cat for one of her toys and gets a little too close for comfort as far as nearly picking up the cat!

[blas87]

Well, it's been a while.

Because both of my parents are awful procrastinators (mom pretends that she isn't and blames it all on dad, but she also is bad at it), Baby has remained in the house as a family member since I last posted.

Right now they are threatening to send her to a farm because she peed on the floor. While that's unusual behavior for her, I've noticed that as soon as her litter box gets too full, she starts going outside of it (in the basement on pavement), so it was odd that this was upstairs on the wood floor, but I'm thinking that it was probably a full litter box. Even the kitten has went out of the box if it's too full. What did I say about my parents being procrastinators?

Brother's gf even bought clumping litter so that you can just walk by, toss the turds into the garbage, voila it's clean and still plenty of litter in there for them to use.

I'm not sure if they are going to go through with the farm threat or not. They always instill worry on me easily