(Warning: This post is high in cat content. Readers beware.)
Living with my boyfriend involved living with Spiff the cat, a notorious furniture enemy. Most of the furniture B. owned had some trace of claws going through the fabric and before we all moved in together, I kept looking at my poor sofa, refusing to accept that it would look like that soon. There had to be a way, aside from declawing (which is supposed to be very very cruel to cats).
I started thinking up schemes of all kinds, the most ingenious of them involving the little round head of pins that I could glue to the cat’s paws, but I didn’t think they would stay on. As usual, I turned to the Web and quickly found the site for Soft Paws. Invented by a U.S. vet, Soft Paws are little nail caps that cover the cat’s claws and keep it from being able to dig into fabric, carpets and furniture. I read the info on the product, checked out a few blogs that talked about them and decided to give them a try. The price on the Web site is in U.S. funds. I called around Montreal and found two places that carry them (a vet clinic and a pet store), but they charged a bit more so I ended up ordering them directly from the company’s Web site.
B. and I had a few conversations about the color we should pick and we decided to go with blue instead of clear because it’s funnier and it’s easier to see if the cat loses one of the nail caps. The Soft Paws arrived in the mail two or three weeks after I ordered them and once we had moved in and the cat had calmed down, we glued the nails to Spiff’s claws. He’s used to getting his nails trimmed so he didn’t protest much. The toughest thing was handling the very small caps and getting the glue inside of them. The cat was just pleased with all the attention. I had read on the Web site that most cats don’t even notice the nail caps and it was true for Spiff as well. He first shook his paws for a second and then walked around as if nothing had happened. Little did he know his destructive days were over…
The Soft Paws have been on for a week now, and Spiff still tries to scratch furniture but his paws just slide down on the fabric. I’m still checking to see if all fabrics are now Spiff proof. It looks like losely knitted fabric might still be damaged but it’s not a huge deal since I don’t tend to be into macram� very much. The nail caps are supposed to fall off naturally after 4 or 6 weeks, as the claw grows. Spiff has lost only one cap so far, and it’s probably because I didn’t put enough glue in it.
Last night, as B. and I were arranging things around the basement, I noticed that the damn cat had managed to scratch the fabric of my futon in the few days between the move and the installation of the manicure. I swear this will be his last trophy. Until the end of his nine lives, this orange monster will have blue nails, whether the squirrels in the window make fun of him or not. And judging by the attitude he has on these photos (1 and 2), you can tell he’s pretty proud of his spiffy new look. Now if only I could stop him from shedding…
