I can show you pictrues where *my* cats have clawed *our* walls - in some
places they have exposed the interior of the sheetrock/drywall, in others,
they've just managed to peel up the wallpaper (crappy wallpaper anyway, and
one of the things we've been planing on removing/replacing anyway), and then
they play with the shreds - I find them all over the house.  In the
bedrooms - acraps of wallpaper from the kitchen will appear..... <sigh>

Well, Oscar destroyed all of my blinds.  But I think she chewed
through them.  And they were pretty cheap to replace.

I actually got Oscar when I had my dog Puma.  I didn't report her
existence because I knew the lease said to declaw.  So when Puma died,
I just kept paying dog pet rent.

Which is the other obnoxious thing about these requirements; they
typically are already charging you pet rent, plus a non-refundable
deposit!  (How is it a deposit, anyway, when it's non-refundable?)
And then on *top* of that they want to declaw your cat??

My cat Katie, who died of cancer two years ago, clawed several
doorposts down to bare wood during her last six weeks or so of life.
She was the dominant cat of the pair, and apparently felt, once her
strength started to fade, that she needed to mark her territory more
vigorously.

Unfurnished here. Actually, both Sammy and Spot have done some damage
by scratching in inappropiate places. The trim around the windows and
doors are raw wood, and both occassionally scratch there. Course,
replacing all the trim would just take an hour or two, a miter saw,
and some finish nails.

when I printed out the declaw info and presented it to the new owners
I printed that section in a large bold font, and then highlighted it
with a highlighter pen. Unfortuantely, I don't know if they even read
the info. When I gave notice that I'd move before giving up any of my
cats (the new lease said tenants who already had pets could keep one
cat - and of course at the time I had both Sammy and Little Bit and
Rocky was added a short time later) - or declawing - they backed off
the declawing and agreed to let me keep all my cats, as long as I put
up a deposit for each one.

I'd tend to agree. Here there are actually three complexes, each a
block apart, owned and managed from the same office. My complex is all
small one bedroom apartments - which tends to keep out couples with
children. One street away the complex is one and two bedroom
apartments, and the next street over has 1-3 bedrooms. Something I've
never understood is that while the other two complexes have
washer/drier hookups in each apartment, my complex is the only one
without a common laundry room.

My complex does have a declaw requirement but it has never been enforced
 - at least not for me anyway. Though my cats have done damage to the
carpet in a few areas. In some cases down to the carpet backing. Though
this is due to the carpet not being installed correctly. There were
areas where the carpet was loose, and they scratched and pulled on it
until nothing was left. There are also a few areas with loose carpet
fibers pulled up as they walked or ran by in certain areas. They have
also pulled the paint off doors by scratching. But that is easily fixed.
They were able to do this because the painters painted water based paint
on top of oil based paint without a primer in between.

I have lived here so long - over five years - and kept on good terms
with the manager. Plus I have never caused problems for my neighbors.  I
try to be respectful of them as much as possible - keeping the noise
level down etc. I think that is part of the reason they do not push me
into the declaw requirement. Having a good tenant has rewards for them
as well. I think they prefer to keep good tenants rather than loose them
to enforcing a lease/rental requirement.