Keep your cats clawed

It saddens me that so many people think declawing their cats is an appropriate thing to do. This attitude must come from a lack of information about what declawing does to a cat. I'm going to post some info and links to more info in hopes it will encourage you to spread the word on declawing.

Taken from http://www.sniksnak.com/cathealth/declaw.html:

Declawing is the removal of bones, tendons, ligaments and claws to the first knuckle of each toe. Declawing robs the cat of a vital part of his or her anatomy. Simply stated, a declawed cat is a maimed cat.

A 1994 study by the Department of Veterinary Clinical Sciences at Washington State University College of Veterinary Medicine found that of 163 cats who were declawed, 50 percent had one or more complications immediately after surgery, such as pain, hemorrhage, lameness, swelling, and non-weight bearing. Of the 121 cats whose progress was followed after surgery, 20 percent had continued complications, such as infection, regrowth, bone protrusion into the pad of the paw and prolonged intermittent lameness and palmagrade stance (abnormal standing posture).

Taken from http://www.declawing.com/:

In England declawing is termed "inhumane" and "unnecessary mutilation." In many European countries it is illegal.

Some cats are so shocked by declawing that their personalities change. Cats who were lively and friendly have become withdrawn and introverted after being declawed. Others, deprived of their primary means of defense, become nervous, fearful, and/or aggressive, often resorting to their only remaining means of defense, their teeth. In some cases, when declawed cats use the litterbox after surgery, their feet are so tender they associate their new pain with the box...permanently, resulting in a life-long adversion to using the litter box. Other declawed cats that can no longer mark with their claws, they mark with urine instead resulting in inappropriate elimination problems, which in many cases, results in relinquishment of the cats to shelters and ultimately euthanasia. Many of the cats surrendered to shelters are surrendered because of behavioral problems which developed after the cats were declawed.

More information on the harmful effects of declawing and humane ways to deal with claws:
http://declaw.lisaviolet.com/
http://www.sniksnak.com/cathealth/declaw.html
http://www.declawing.com/
http://cats.about.com/cs/declawing/a/nodeclaw.htm


I should point out that the Winona Area Humane Society does not declaw any of their animals, although many come in already declawed. Perhaps someone's nice little kitty wasn't so nice once it got declawed.

Help stop the cruelty. Spread the word. Tell your friends. Tell your family.

Happy Birthday, Weblog

Today is the 2 year birthday of my blog. Hard to believe. They grow up so fast. It seems like just yesterday that he was born. Maybe if I didn't neglect him so much, I wouldn't be so shocked at how old he's gotten. I'm a horrible parent.

MySpace: The world's biggest popularity contest

Well I created a MySpace page. Not much to see there, but you can see that I have 16 friends (7 of which are actually free advertising). I think I might have a unique picture or two on there also. So without further ado, I present to you... [drumroll]... Jeff's Space [cymbol crash]

This MySpace craze is like an indie band's wet dream. Offer up some songs. Become everyone and their grandma's friend. Get others to put your song on their page and voila, instant publicity. You know, I think it is cool for fans to want to spread the word about their favorite bands. My problem is when the bands push themselves on you. The other day I got a message from someone I never heard of wanting to be my friend. Turns out the person was actually some crappy indie band. They must have gone to every friend of some other band and tried to make new friends. I listened a little to the music - kinda weird, but not half bad - but I won't have anything to do with that band again because I got MySpammed. (MySpammed... I like that. I wonder if anyone else has used it yet. I just looked and turns out I wasn't the first. Damnit.)

The other thing I wanted to say was Thank You to MySpace for making me feel inadequate yet again. It is a real esteem builder when the shiest girl in high school has more friends than you. Course most of my friends aren't on MySpace... or I just haven't gotten around to adding them as friends... and I don't really care about my friend count anyways... I just joined to view other people's profiles... It's just a big stupid popularity contest, anyways, and I'm above that... besides, popularity contests are so high school... I mean jeez, grow up.