Yes, I do care. It breaks my heart that you've done it, it's irreversable and
there's nothing that can be done to undo the damage. However, saying they are
"all doing fine" is a bit premature. I truly hope they are.

Sherry

Doing fine from *your* point of view.

Did you ever wonder *why* cats scratch, or are you normally not that
inquisitive?  Cats scratch because they *enjoy* it - scratching *feels
good*.  You took that pleasure away from your cats.

Go here and learn something about cats:

http://maxshouse.com/understanding_scratching.htm

Good to hear your cats are back and in good shape.  When my girls came back
from their fixing, I bought them a few new toys and a little extra spoiling.

They'll be fine

Unfortunately, you can't tell if they are "doing fine" at this early stage.
Yes, their wounds from the amputation will probably heal quickly.  Many
declawed cats become active after only a short time.  The long-term problems
will not be noticeable so quickly -- many declawed cats develop problems
with inappropriate urination, biting (their only other defenses have been
surgically removed), and physical problems such as arthritis.  Far more
declawed than clawed cats develop these problems, and they usually develop
them at an earlier age.  It is now your responsibility to watch for an onset
of any of these problems and to do all in your power to help.  I adopted a
cat who had been declawed.  She was a complete angel, and she compensated
remarkably well.  However, she never did have the same type of coordination
that all of my clawed cats have had.  At about the age of 12 or 13, she
started to urinate outside the litter box.  I finally realized that it had
become painful for her to dig in the litter box.  I located the softest
litter I could find (a product called "Better Way"), and that helped.
Nevertheless, she urinated outside the box more and more frequently as she
aged.  I eventually just let her use the one sport on the carpet that she
preferred (which kept it contained in one area) and would clean it as best I
could.  After she died at age 16, I had that section of carpet and padding
removed and sealed the concrete underneath.  We also had to remove some of
the wood tack-stripping that had become saturated with urine.

This little angel -- and she truly deserved that title because she was the
dearest, sweetest little cat imaginable -- did not deserve this fate.
However, I did all in my power to make it up to her.  In turn, she brought
incredible joy to my life.  I hope you will do the same thing.  I hope you
will also *never* do what the people who had her declawed did -- they got
rid of her (but then I had the great good fortune to adopt her).
Unfortunately, a very large number of declawed cats are later dumped
(statistics at animal shelters bear this out), and it is often because of
problems that were caused by the declawing itself.  Thus, when you read
complaints from people on this newsgroup, these complaints are not aimed
only at the pain of the surgery.  That, in itself, would be a valid
complaint in my opinion; but when you say they are "doing fine," you
apparently are only considering the immediate post-surgery reactions and are
not looking into the future at the needs for long-term care.  I did read
your message concerning your wife and your home.  If you ever get another
cat, please *immediately* ask people on this newsgroup for specific
information on how to train your cat to a scratching post.  I have easily
trained all of my cats to scratching posts, and I am also able to have
beautiful furniture (but...my cats would *easily* outweigh my furniture in
balancing the value of what is in my life).

MaryL
(take out the litter to reply)

Photos of Duffy and Holly:      >'o'<
http://tinyurl.com/8y54 (Introducing Duffy to Holly)
http://tinyurl.com/8y56 (Duffy and Holly "settle in")

like I said, have fun cleaning up cat piss from all over your house.

Or when they have regrowth problems, or start biting, or develop
arthitis in older age because they cannot walk properly, please come
back so we can tell you "I told you so".

-L.