This is one of her first pictures:
It took a lot of work but she came around and became a sweet girl who got along with dogs and cats. Her buddy was Sunny, a Ragdoll, who was also a foster kitten. Sunny was bigger and loved to give her a bath.
She used her scratching post faithfully and never scratched the furniture.
In February 2008 Sophie was adopted out to a lady who lived alone and there were no other pets. I was hoping she'd take a buddy for Sophie but it didn't happen.
In March of 2008 Sophie went in for her spay. Against the rules and agreements made, the new owner had Sophie declawed at that time. This kitten was only 4 months old! We were not told about this and you can imagine why; she broke her agreement to never do this.
A lot of people aren't aware that cats actually walk on their nails. They need them for balance. Because of the way a cat's nails are made you can't just take the nail; they have to take the whole first knuckle. In other words it's an amputation x 10.
If you'd like to know more about this inhumane procedure to understand why it's banned in over 25 countries in the civilized world see this:
http://maxshouse.com/Truth%20About%20Declawing.htm
Please pass the word. I'm sorry to say that vets who perform this money-making procedure are sadly misinforming their clients.
Now, back to Sophie. In March I got a call from Sophie's owner to tell me she wanted to return Sophie to AAL. Why?? Because "she's not affectionate". I kid you not. We took her back asap. Apparently within days of being declawed Sophie didn't want her owner near her, was in pain and didn't want to walk. Is it any wonder that she wasn't affectionate? When I talked to the owner her justification was that her good friend has 4 declawed cats. So what! This procedure doesn't always go wrong but if you read the article in the link above you'll see why when it does go wrong, it can go very wrong. Why would any informed person take such a chance?
Sophie is in a fabulous foster home. However when she first arrived things were anything but fabulous. Sophie was furious; growling, hissing & spitting mad. The foster mom had to wear falcon gloves to approach her. It was the most pitiful thing I'd ever seen. While walking she'll stumble (declawed), will fall off the window sill (declawed), has painful feet (declawed). Poor Sophie was absolutely miserable.
Here she is on her "tree fort". She's a bit hunched up in this photo. She's actually a small cat, weighing only 7 pounds.
She'll now let her foster mom hold her without growling. You can see how little she really is. It's taken a good month but she's learning to trust people again. This is major progress.
We took her to our vet and did all sorts of blood work checking to see if she had anything going on that would explain her symptoms. The vet even took an x-ray of her feet feeling certain he was going to find bone fragments left in after the declawing. No bone fragments, no medical issues, blood work was fine.
Our vet said we could do a neurology consult as the next step if we wanted. But, I feel when there's an elephant in the room, look no further. It all seems to go back to that rotten day in March 2008 when she was declawed and Sophie's life took a horrible turn.
There's a vet in Kings Mountain, NC. His name is Dr. DeHaan and he's a holistic vet who does acupuncture and acupressure. I'd taken a dog to him last year that had very stiff joints from Rocky Mountain Spotted fever. Dr. DeHaan did both acupuncture and acupressure on this dog and the results were nothing short of miraculous. That's where we want to take Sophie. And that's where you come in. There's a donation button on the right. Please, find it in your heart to help us get Sophie the help she needs.
We're hoping to raise $500 to get Sophie a series of treatments. It's our last hope to save this girl from a lifetime of pain and discomfort. We want her to be happy once again. We're still waiting for her to purr.
Feel free to email and questions or comments. We love hearing from our readers. And lastly, say a prayer for Sophie.
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This is so sad, poor Sophie and all the cats that are still being routinely disabled by this disgusting procedure. I know that a lot of veterinary surgeons in the USA now refuse to do this to cats but there are still far too many only too willing to take big bucks and give the owner what they want at the expense of the cat, some even offer it as a "package" for kittens along with neutering and vaccination. In England where I live it's banned but a group of us are trying to help some others in the USA to have this banned and we have a petition here
ReplyDeletehttp://www.petitionthem.com/default.asp?sect=detail&pet=4312 and a group here
http://clawsforever.ning.com/ and I have a blog here http://clawsforever.blogspot.com/
It's so sad that Sophie was abused by the person who adopted her, why can't people realise that cats come with claws and the simple solution is:
"If you don't want the claws don't get the cat, it's not rocket science - it's as simple as that"
We now have 3 cats the still have their claws and we haven't had ONE single problem! If you learn to cut thier nails regularty (do it when they are sleeping) there shouldn't be an issue with it. We get scratched every now and then but that's when i know i haven't cut their nails and that's MY fault...
ReplyDeleteI never knew how in-humane it was to declaw so the word needs to be spread more! So many people like me are still out there so if we can just educate people, less of this horrible situation will occur. You can be sure i will be praying for this little baby!!!!
To Firstklass7: Thank you for writing. Many people don't realize how inhumane it is to declaw a cat. Hopefully this blog will educate people and save a lot of cats from having to endure this misery.
ReplyDeleteTo Babz: I went over to your blog. It's great. I see you're in the UK. Sophie's gone international now! Wonderful. Keep spreading the word!
The vets in the U.S. rarely tell people exactly what declawing really is, and unsuspecting people think their kitties are in good hands. I've met a lot of people who declawed because they didn't know the facts, then later they were absolutely horrified when they found out what they'd done to their kitty. But the person who declawed Sophie has no excuse; she was told the facts, was given literature/web sites to study...and did it anyway...AND felt no remorse.
ReplyDeleteWe actually put a clause in our adoption contract that if they break any of the conditions, we can sue the adoptee for up to $1,000. We have successfully used it a couple times when the adopted dogs were chained, abandoned, etc. I suggest talking to a lawyer to get the clause inserted in your adoption agreements.
ReplyDeletePoor little Sophie ! Another heartbreaking story of a cat now crippled for life because of the horrific procedure of declawing. I'm a retired vet nurse in England and even before declawing was banned here, none of the vets I worked for would ever do the procedure.Along with others I'm desperately trying to spread the truth about declawing, alongside working towards a ban in the USA, then Canada, and then worldwide.The day can't come soon enough when this abuse is stopped.But meanwhile, because some vets don't explain to their clients what a drastic cruel operation it is, we are trying to educate people as best we can and so far have saved 33 cats claw on Yahoo Answers.
ReplyDeletehttp://kattaddorra.blogspot.com/
Is there any news about Sophie?
ReplyDeleteBabz,
ReplyDeleteSophie is going to the holistic vet tomorrow. Will post an update when she gets back. Fingers crossed.
Good luck to you all x
ReplyDeleteI am so glad I learned about this blog, and have added it to my blog roll. I send all the head bonks and purrs to you and especially to this remarkable kitty, Sadie. Thank you so much for all you do for the welfare of kitties.
ReplyDeleteJo
http://frequentlyfeline.blogspot.com/
Poor Sophie! At such a young age it would have been easy to train her to use a scratching post and also to be tolerant of a nail trimming. My cat, Oreo, certainly doesn't like getting her front claws cut but she's been permitting it for 11 years now - ever since she was about six-months-old. To make it easy to remember, I check her front claws once-a-month on the same day that she gets her heartworm pill. Declawing a cat is just cruel.
ReplyDelete