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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