Originally posted by: Lucky
Unfortunately, his previous owner declawed him, so he can't go outside without supervision.
NEVER DECLAW CATS.
That's a pretty stupid rationale for not declawing cats-because they can't go outside? Damm right, my cats stay inside all the time. They will live 3 times as long too. And they are both quite happy without their claws, thank you.
lucky and phoebe
Our cats are declawed. We do try to keep them inside to keep ticks and fleas down.
And it doesn't seem to affect their defensive capabilities, at least not against dogs. A collie wandered into our yard while the one cat, Scotty, was out too. Scared the hell out of Scotty, but the collie did wind up running home with a ripped up ear. It never came around anymore. During the chase, which was too quick to really do anything about, he quick bolted up to the sliding glass door, real quick rubbed his paws on us, like "OPEN UP, OPEN UP, OPEN UP!!!!" then just dove off the deck, a good 10 foot drop, and ran off. The next day at the bus stop (this was a few years ago), the dog's owner said that their collie needed stitches. They did (eventually) get an electric fence for their dogs.
So yeah, cats can still defend themselves.
One we used to have, Harry, died at 17 from a tumor years ago, was able to climb trees without front claws. And like cats love to do, he'd sit at the top of the tree for awhile, howling, then finally decide he'd had enough pity, and just climb down on his own.
Pics coming tomorrow. I have a bunch of pics on the camera, which has only a serial hookup, so downloading pics off it is slower than my Internet connection. Had my Tesla coil running again today - filled the camera with pics of that, and there's cat pics on it too.
😀