[MyDearSam]

I would love some ideas from fellow cat owned members about training. I got Tinkerbell when she was just 3 weeks old and someone left her and her littermates in a cardboard box at a construction site. She just turned 6 this past week. She has shredded the back of my couch and a door facing. I have bought her carpeted posts, corrugated cardboard strips, catnip treated posts. I even tried taping aluminum foil to the door facing. Nothing works.

DH is constantly threatening to have her declawed. I know he would never dare actually do it, but it pisses me off that he would even suggest it. He saw me nearly take the receptionist at the vet's office apart over it. When I took Tink in for her spay, the receptionist was filling out the pre-op forms on the computer and completely nonchalantly assumed that she was being declawed too. I told her in not very nice terms that NO, you are not declawing my cat! "I don't believe in mutilation for convenience." were my exact words, and probably everyone in the place heard me.

I can understand the removal of dew claws in puppies, and totally agree. I've seen some really nasty injuries from them being left. Ear cropping I absolutely abhor, and I'm beginning to feel the same about tails. I have issues with the standard on a couple of fronts, but tail docking is where I completely part ways with it. As much as some want to preserve the standard, I dearly hope the UK's ban on the practice takes hold here. Yorkies were bred as working dogs, but they aren't any more. There's absolutely no good and valid reason in my book to continue docking.

Strictly IMO and YMMV.