Wednesday, April 01, 2009

Ideas? Anyone?

I kinda feel like I’m stuck and I don’t really know what to do… I’m about to drive myself crazy over-thinking this… it’s the kitties… and their claws… when I moved into the apartment the lady that lived there before me had a dog… the apartment didn’t replace the carpet before I moved in and the kitties were constantly clawing/scratching it… I thought maybe it was just the dog smell that they were after… they have a scratching post, I’ve actually had several for them, vertical ones, horizontal ones… Murphy won’t use it and I’ve tried to “show” him how to use them… Mazzy uses it but she has also started using the back of dc’s couch… Murphy (and sometimes) Mazzy are now clawing at the new carpet in the 2nd bedroom… then, when Mazzy goes outside and freaks out she slices you to pieces… (I got cut again last night, other arm, when I let her outside… she immediately darted off towards the back of the yard and I had to chase her down… needless to say she is not allowed outside anymore!)
I have always been vehemently opposed to having kitties de-clawed… to me it is inhumane and completely unnecessary… there is absolutely no medical reason to de-claw a kitty… the past two days I have found myself thinking about having the kitties de-clawed though… I have even gone as far as to call the vet and see how they did it in town, what was involved, and the cost… de-clawing the kitties doesn’t sit well with me at all… I feel so extremely guilty even thinking about it… I honestly can’t believe I am thinking about it… considering it… calling on it… I can’t for the life of me figure out how to get them to stop scratching the “wrong” things though… I’ve tried spraying them with water, spanking them, showing them how to use the scratching post, and I am out of ideas… I’m going to get some of the spray that’s supposed to stop them from scratching- I tried it in the beginning at the apartment … but that’s the last thing I know of… the vet I called today suggested those nail caps but the kitties hate having their nails messed with so I’m 99.99% sure that’s not going to work… I don’t want to not do anything just because what we have now isn’t “that” nice because I don’t want them to think it’s ok to keep scratching… you know, in case we ever get new furniture or nice carpet… but I really don’t know what to do… my arms hurt like hell from Mazzy’s razor blade like claws and the back of the couch is and the carpet in the 2nd bedroom is getting scratched up… The kitties (and I) would greatly appreciate any and all thoughts and ideas!!!

1 comment:

kilax said...

Courtney, I wish I had the solution. I am vehemently opposed to declawing... but I would be frustrated in your situation as well. Data was declawed when we got him, but he still "scrathes" things.

There must be some solution. Are they just ignoring the posts completely? Because the like the couch better? I wonder if you can leave one crappy piece of furn for them to claw and teach them to only do it on that. That seems so generous though. I wonder if Gina will have any good ideas.