[MicroBob]

kyleb - I don't know whether 'most people' think it's inhumane to declaw them.
But I know that I certainly don't think it's inhumane.

We had 3 cats growing up and all were declawed (front paws only) as kittens and got along just fine. All 3 would go outside some as well and could even climb trees.

Had a couple cats with my ex-wife and we declawed both and they were fine also.

My sister is a vet and has done these declawing procedures before and does not consider it a big deal.
All of her own cats are declawed and she wouldn't have done it if she thought it was cruel.

The only cat I've had that I didn't get declawed is the one in my avatar. But that was because I adopter her as a neighborhood stray and she was 10 or 11 or so when I took her in.
Even then, she didn't mess up my furniture in the least. She loved to go into the basement and scratch up cardboard-boxes though.


I've only had 1 cat who had some issues with peeing on the carpet and marking his territory and what-not. Just spray a water-bottle at him when you catch him in the act. Or take him to the spot where he did it if you don't catch it right-away, put his nose up to it and yell "No!" at him or something.
That was our strategy anyway and it seemed to work.


One idea I had when we went to an adopt-a-pet place to pick one out: Pick the kitten that doesn't meow a ton. If you grab a cute cat and it is meowing non-stop then maybe there's a greater chance it will keep bugging you with non-stop meowing at 4am or something.
We were looking at two identical and equally cute kittens. I suggested we take the one that wasn't meowing and crying non-stop.


Cats are super-cheap and easy to care for.

Most cats that are okay with dry-food can be left on their own for a couple days or more.
If they only eat canned-food or something then you might have to hire a friend or a pet-sitter.

You can just look up pet-sitters in your area I think.
They usually charge $10-$15/day to come to your place and feed them and change the litter, etc.

My next-door neighbor did this full-time so it was pretty easy for me to just drop off the keys to my place when I went off for a week or more.