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| Ms. Claudia's paws |
Cats make excellent home decorators. At least, they think they do. The problem with their style of decorating is too much fringe. If they had their way, every piece of furniture in your home would be covered in ripped strands of fabric from their sharp little claws. I can't tell you how often I've pushed a sofa into a corner or added one too many throws to a chair to cover up kitty's recent decorating job. I've tried all the methods you can think of to stop her clawing sessions: spray bottle, sticky strips, yelling and screaming (doesn't work. do not try.) and sour apple spray. Most of these were met with haughty looks of annoyance and silent snickering behind lethal paws. Well, I've finally found something that works and though I'm not into product endorsement (I am not receiving compensation in any way for this post), I thought I needed to share this with you because it has cut down on my frustration significantly. The product is called Soft Paws and they are basically plastic claw covers. You put them on and within a month or two they fall off naturally as your cat sheds layers of her claws. When you order the kit, they supply you with the plastic tips and glue. The trick here is getting kitty to let you hold her paws long enough to apply them. To overcome this hurdle, start touching your cat's paws when petting her. Just a little bit everyday. Eventually, she'll get used to it. To apply the covers, you trim the very tip of her claws, put a drop of glue inside the plastic tip, flex one of kitty's digits, then put on the tip and hold for about 15 seconds. It dries very quickly. After you finish applying them all, you'll want to monitor her for about 15 minutes to make sure she doesn't try and pull them off. She'll still go through the motion of clawing but won't be able to tear anything. Every once in a while she'll pull one off during a claw grooming session, so you just replace the missing one. They come in a variety of colors. The picture above shows Ms. Claudia wearing the pink and blue combo pack. If you'd like to order some for your little rascal, go to www.softpaws.com
Lastly, whatever method you end up using to save your furniture, never declaw your cat. Declawing is severely detrimental to your cat's body and mind.
I know it has been a while since you have said anything about cats, but our cat is an indoor cat, and got out last night. When she finally returned around 4 in the morning, we noticed she was walking very slowly as if she is feeling sore. We have checked her to look for cuts, but did not see any, and she really did not appreciate our poking around! I've looked on the internet about giving her a baby aspirin, but I have read answers that go both ways. I am afraid to give her even a quarter of a baby aspirin! Do you know of any homeopathic things we can do? One website mentioned Traumeel and arnica. What are those, and are they to be found at a regular drug store? Sorry, I know you're not a vet, but our vet is closed today since it's Saturday, and we don't think it's an emergency, but we just hate to see her so miserable. Thanks for anything you add.
ReplyDeleteDanielle,
ReplyDeleteI'm so sorry that I'm getting to this post now. Unfortunately, this blog isn't sending me email notifications the way it should so I just noticed your comment today. I really hope your kitty is feeling much better. To those of you who are reading this, my recommendation would be to take your kitty to an 24 hour emergency vet. This same situation happened to my mother's cat, Dexter, last month. He slipped out and was gone for a night. When he returned he seemed fine but just a little sore and uncomfortable. It turned out he was hit by a car and the internal injuries were so severe that he had to be put down. Cats are experts at hiding even the worst injuries and so I believe it's always best to take them to the vet if you notice this sort of behavior.