After reading the following email, I thought about the fact that so much is said about the havoc and destruction that cats' claws may cause. Well, this page will be devoted to the things we like about our cat's claws. Feel free to share your feelings.

March 23, 1999

I was lying on my couch suffering with a terrible flu. Three of my cats had placed themselves on my body to keep me warm, or, perhaps, to keep themselves warm. Michaela had positioned herself on my left thigh and hip. Her sister, the exquisite and self-appointed PRINCESS of Leonessa Cattery, Macaroni, had placed herself between my left breast and left shoulder, so she could be closest to my face. Fabrizio was nestled under my right arm.

I patted Michaela and told her how marvelous I thought she was, then patted Macaroni, who was gazing, adoringly, into my face and told her how marvelous I thought she was. As I turned to my right, away from Macaroni's adoring gaze, to tell Fabrizio how marvelous I thought he was........Macaroni took my chin in her paw, extending her middle claw, for emphasis, and pulled my face back so that I was looking ONLY at HER, so that I could, again, reiterate, how marvelous I thought SHE was.

This intimate, complex communication could never have happened with a cat who had been declawed.

So much of a cat's ability to express itself and communicate with us depends on its bendable "fingers" and retractable claws. This feature is, especially, what separates cats from all other creatures and makes them such a "human" pet.

To declaw a cat is not only a crime against the animal, it is a crime against Nature, Herself!!!

DON"T DO IT!!!!!

P.S. For all the dog lovers who might read this, I mean this, in no way to cast aspersions on the glory of dogs. Having bred, trained and showed German Shepherd Dogs for thirty years of my life, I KNOW how wonderful and uncannily intelligent dogs are. It is interesting to note that a dog's nails can wreck havoc on hardwood floors, on doorframes, pawing to go out, on the dog food cabinet doors, pawing to get in. On a silk dress when a dog paws your leg for attention.........yet no one proposes that we amputate a dog's toes. We would be horrified by such barbarism! WHY? WHY? WHY? do we amputate a cat's toes??? Is it because we can dominate dogs, but a cat is never dominated? Is our need for control so great that we would mutilate a little cat so that we can subjugate it? Are we jealous of the cat's independence, its inborn sense of superiority? WHY??!!

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