Viewing LadyNico's Profile

Aye, hear hear! Oh, and I see you also commented on your page...*reads*

Oh right! I'd heard that declawing and other cosmetic alterations were illegal there. I wish the same would happen here...unless your dog is a working dog whose tail is legitimately prone to injury in its line of work, docking is just...cruel. It's alarming how nonchalant people are about declawing and docking/cropping here. Even when I explain that it's literally cutting off part of their fingers/toes and not just a fingernail...more often than not I'm met with a shrug. I think that's changing slowly, finally, but...

I have one girl who was declawed by previous owners before I rescued her and she definitely has unique challenges my others don't. She still tries to scratch the scratching pads, though, and our wicker hamper. Her posture is different, and she has litter box problems too. I wish so hard that it'd become illegal here...

Like with many things that evoke strong emotions, that thread was always going to be headed towards eventual locking heh. Not idyllic really, just suburban London! It's easy enough to google "fox on the tube" or "underground" and you'll see foxes even take public transport! I don't supervise my cats. They have (and have always had) 24-hour indoor/outdoor access via their own cat flap. It's fancy enough that it works on their microchips so it lets them come & go as they please, but still keeps other cats out. The added bonus is that it keeps out the fox kits, too, because they're partial to cat food and will gleefully launch home invasions for as long as they can fit through a cat-sized pet door. They're just old these days and choose not to spend as much time outside. One is arthritic, so there's a litter tray here inside for them in case they need it. It's different here in the UK. For one, cosmetic mutilation such as declawing cats, docking dogs' tails and cropping dogs' ears is illegal except in case of medical need (eg dog has "happy tail") or certain very specific working dog criteria (eg police, military, some working rat-terriers). With the possible exception of cancer of the toe, there isn't a medical need for declawing cats. My furniture is fine, no scratching - they have scratch boxes, scratch posts, and a tree in the back garden they scratch on, my furniture (apart from cat hair!) is pristine.

Awh, the thread got locked. Here's what I said, though, so we've got some closure:

Good god, it sounds like you live in a storybook or something, and I definitely don't mean that as an insult. It sounds very idyllic and lovely.

I see, I was under the impression that your cats were predominantly outdoor cats like people tend to have where I live. It sounds more to me like you supervise them? In which case by all means, carry on! I meant no offence. I have heard that y'all as a society have vastly different views of outdoor cats across the pond, so I can't say much there. My grandmothers are both capable of being quite vicious, though...ha!