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This happened many years ago. It was a very difficult way to learn about declawing. I had rescued this tiny black kitten, from some children who though it would be fun to see the kitten go round and round in a preheated dryer. I took him from them and home. I fed this kitten for weeks with a doll baby bottle. I was young and hadn't ever had a kitten before. We became very attached to each other.
About a year later I had a 16 pd neutered black cat and a problem. I had to drive back to the Midwest and would be gone 10 days. I decided to board Mr. Twinks at the vets, thinking he'd be safe there.
Boy was I wrong. As soon as I got to town I went to get him, didn't even stop to unload the bags. After waiting for 45 minutes, I was beginning to get angry. Why the wait, just bring me my cat. More waiting another 15-20 minutes. At last they brought him to me wrapped in a blanket. I was shocked he hardly looked like the healthy cat I'd left. He had obviously lost weight and was listless to the point, that when they gave him to me,(after I paid the bill) he just barely raised his head and a tiny meow came out. They said he'd caught a cold, he'd be OK. Gave me antibiotics, which they charged me for. I took this now 9 LB cat home. I set him down on the sofa and he didn't try to get up. I got water and his favorite food and sat beside him. He wouldn't eat then I saw that his paws looked strange. I took a good long look and saw they looked mangled, and then I saw the stitches. I still had no idea what was wrong with my cat. I called the vet several times and got a run around. So I took Twinks to my Mom and got to the vets at 5 minutes of closing. They didn't want to let me in the door I force the issue. A very large male like over 6ft and more than 200 lb., their animal handler, told me they had declawed Twinks because they couldn't handle the cat. He had clawed someone in the office. After a lot of investigation, I found out that he had clawed a tech, while they were mangling his paws.
It took nine months for Twinks to heal and many trips to a different vet. Who told me what had been done to Twinks. The worst part is it made Twinks a very mean cat who would bite and draw blood even on me, if I had to do anything he didn't want done.
All I had tried to do was see he was safe. I gave no permission to declaw him and keep him drugged. Please be careful if you must leave your cats and please don't declaw, I doubt you'll like the results and I know your cat will not.
NEMESIS1IM
October 28, 1999
