# Feeling guilty....please help me not feel so bad. **URL:** \ **Category:** The BBQ Pit\ **Created:** [May 1, 2003, 3:50pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/feeling-guilty-please-help-me-not-feel-so-bad/172399 "2003-05-01T15:50:14Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 16\ **Page:** 15
**Author:** ![Venoma](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/v/c4cdca/32.png) [@Venoma](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Venoma)\ **Post date:** [May 7, 2003, 2:05pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/feeling-guilty-please-help-me-not-feel-so-bad/172399/281 "2003-05-07T14:05:27Z")
Well, **Weirddave** , Sulu still pulls his fur out and likes having a collar on, for some reason, and Sisko loves my mother in law. And sitting on the edge of the bathtub when I’m having a bath. They’re both on weight control Iams now. No health problems. Happy campers. Furry lurve 🙂 Oh, and Sisko climbs up on the bed in the morning to eat my and Dan’s hair. Not his cutest of tricks, I have to admit, but pretty harmless 😉 20 lbs of cat laying against your head isn’t the worst way to wake up. I always forgot to ask - Is Sisko one of Sulu’s progeny? ---
**Author:** ![Weirddave](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/919ad9/32.png) [@Weirddave](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Weirddave)\ **Post date:** [May 7, 2003, 6:57pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/feeling-guilty-please-help-me-not-feel-so-bad/172399/282 "2003-05-07T18:57:10Z")
No, one of the semi-feral cats where I used to live had kittens, I took him in after Uhura died. ---
**Author:** ![Venoma](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/v/c4cdca/32.png) [@Venoma](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Venoma)\ **Post date:** [May 7, 2003, 7:27pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/feeling-guilty-please-help-me-not-feel-so-bad/172399/283 "2003-05-07T19:27:35Z")
awh 🙂 maybe that explains why he’s almost as big as a bobcat :eek: (slight exaggeration) ---
**Author:** ![porcupine](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/ac91a4/32.png) [@porcupine](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/porcupine)\ **Post date:** [May 7, 2003, 7:37pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/feeling-guilty-please-help-me-not-feel-so-bad/172399/284 "2003-05-07T19:37:17Z")
[continued hijack] **Weirddave** , did **Venoma** adopt your kitties when you had to find a new home for them due to **Gingy** ’s horrible allergies? Very cool![/hijack] ---
**Author:** ![Weirddave](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/919ad9/32.png) [@Weirddave](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Weirddave)\ **Post date:** [May 8, 2003, 1:42pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/feeling-guilty-please-help-me-not-feel-so-bad/172399/285 "2003-05-08T13:42:40Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by porcupine \* > \*\*[continued hijack] **Weirddave** , did **Venoma** adopt your kitties when you had to find a new home for them due to **Gingy** ’s horrible allergies? Very cool![/hijack] \*\* Yup! I had to fly them to Georgia, but they seem happy, so alls well that ends well, etc…Except they’re too far away to visit. ☹ ---
**Author:** ![Tir\_Tinuviel](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/bc79bd/32.png) [@Tir\_Tinuviel](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Tir_Tinuviel)\ **Post date:** [May 8, 2003, 2:27pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/feeling-guilty-please-help-me-not-feel-so-bad/172399/286 "2003-05-08T14:27:34Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by World Eater \* > \*\*English to German and back. > \ > … so, bumsend I hope your cat have its revenge declawed once. I arrange for cat!!! on \*\* bumsend? 😃 Bwhahahahahaaa! > [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by TVAA \* > \*\*I’d support the reduction of the dog and cat populations through predation instead. > \*\* Ok, wanna tell me exactly what’s going to prey on my 16 stone Rottweiler in the middle of London? [sub]actually I don’t have a Rotty, so I have no idea if they get to 16 stone, just thought I’d point that out before someone gets upset with me for overfeeding my dog which I don’t have.[/sub] 😉 ---
**Author:** ![D\_Odds](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/d_odds/32/2882_2.png) [@D\_Odds](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/D_Odds)\ **Post date:** [May 8, 2003, 3:28pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/feeling-guilty-please-help-me-not-feel-so-bad/172399/287 "2003-05-08T15:28:58Z")
[West Hollywood’s Cats Get Law to Keep Claws](http://story.news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story&cid=583&ncid=583&e=3&u=/nm/20030508/od_nm/life_cats_dc) I really don’t agree with this, and it’s just another reason why I’ll avoid West Hollywood even under threat of death or reelection of David Dinkins, but I thought it appropriate for this thread. ---
**Author:** ![Elza\_B](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/6a8cbe/32.png) [@Elza\_B](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Elza_B)\ **Post date:** [May 8, 2003, 11:21pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/feeling-guilty-please-help-me-not-feel-so-bad/172399/288 "2003-05-08T23:21:29Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by jarbabyj \* > \*\*Ok, so if I have a boy cat and a girl cat at my home, which should I do: > > a) sit down and talk to them frankly about urges and my desire for them not to have children. > > b) spay or neuter them > > c) allow them to mate unreservedly and then release the kittens into the wild \*\* d) Let them learn the facts of life in health class and then have wild sex in the back of a 1988 Honda Civic after the Homecoming game using a school-provided condom. Give the kittens up for adoption. **Lady Venom** , I am one of those card-carrying PETA members and in _most_ cases, I am vehemently opposed to declawing, but it’s quite obvious that you thought long and hard about this issue and I’m glad to hear that the kitty is doing well. To be honest, I’ve never heard of laser declawing, but it sounds as if it’s a much more humane method of declawing than the old way. I have one cat who is now fifteen, but was declawed at nine months old (it wasn’t my choice - she was my cat, but I was only 12 when I got her, and my parents made the decision to have her declawed), and although she’s cranky now simply because she’s old, she maintained her sunny disposition throughout her life. Yes, I know it was an uncomfortable procedure for her, and no, I will not do it to my cats now, but she seemed to come through perfectly fine. She still climbs on my lap at night to snuggle. No worse for the wear. Ava ---
**Author:** ![CanvasShoes](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/74df32/32.png) [@CanvasShoes](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/CanvasShoes)\ **Post date:** [May 8, 2003, 11:43pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/feeling-guilty-please-help-me-not-feel-so-bad/172399/289 "2003-05-08T23:43:00Z")
This post is so full of TVAA contradicting himself, both within this post and with things he’d posted previously. This guy is just obviously twisting his poor little brain inside out in an attempt to appear mysterious, worldly and “hipper” than thou. And luckily for us, he’s just met his waterloo by hiis own convoluted logic. Amusement wise that is, I doubt it will stop him. > [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by TVAA \* > \*\*It’s rather similar to the way deer populations should be controlled: by allowing natural predators to catch and eat them. But yet, he told another poster that, “No, he didn’t mean we should release them into the wild”. I guess he thinks that predators will be checking up on who has a new litter and visiting our homes for snack time. > [@](#): > > (Just releasing them into the wild would be a lot more dangerous that you realize… dogs have lost most of the instincts that make it possible for wolves to survive in the wild. A pack of wolves is generally harmless to humans. A pack of wild dogs is a life-threatening menance.) Whoa, he contradicts himself all in one sentence, “dogs have lost most of the instincts…” but yet they are a “life-threatening menace”? Which is it? > [@](#): > > If ‘pets’ can’t establish an ecological niche, we shouldn’t have them in the first place. \*\* So, pets should be working on this by themselves? Without us either keeping them OR releasing them into the wild? What? We should be encouraging an escape from domestication ala “Chicken Run”? Well, at least he’s kindof funny the way he gets himself all tangled up trying to sound smart. ---
**Author:** ![BiblioCat](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/ed8c4c/32.png) [@BiblioCat](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BiblioCat)\ **Post date:** [May 8, 2003, 11:49pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/feeling-guilty-please-help-me-not-feel-so-bad/172399/290 "2003-05-08T23:49:01Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by avabeth \* > \*\*To be honest, I’ve never heard of laser declawing, but it sounds as if it’s a much more humane method of declawing than the old way. \*\* I’ve hesitated jumping into this thread because of the tone it had taken, but just wanted to clarify this point. My cats are declawed (fronts only), for much the same reasons as **Lady Venom’s**. My cats are indoor-only. Doing it by laser means they pop out the claw (by pushing on the pad), like you do when you trim it, and they use a medical-type laser and just laser it off. There are no stitches, and no bone removed. I **would not** have done it the older way, where a joint is removed. I agree, that way was terribly cruel. The laser method is the only way my vet does it. They stayed over night one or two nights, and when they came home, they didn’t have any bandages, and ran around as usual. They jumped off the furniture and didn’t seem to be in any pain. They both still “claw” everything in sight. It’s kind of funny to see them go to town, scratching away on a piece of furniture. I honestly don’t think they even know their claws were removed. My younger cat just can’t figure out why he can’t climb the screen door anymore. ---
**Author:** ![CrazyCatLady](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/dfb087/32.png) [@CrazyCatLady](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/CrazyCatLady)\ **Post date:** [May 8, 2003, 11:52pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/feeling-guilty-please-help-me-not-feel-so-bad/172399/291 "2003-05-08T23:52:01Z")
Well, bad as I hate to encourage the stupid, **TVAA** ’s sentence about a pack of dogs being dangerous actually isn’t self-contradictory. Wolves instinctively avoid humans except when cornered. Feral dogs, on the other hand, have had that instinctive fear of humans bred out of them for, well, as long as they’ve been dogs and not wolves. A pack of feral dogs has no fear of human and thus no issue with attacking humans, and they’ve been known to do it just for kicks. As such, they’re very dangerous indeed. ---
**Author:** ![jackie\_lee](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/f17d59/32.png) [@jackie\_lee](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/jackie_lee)\ **Post date:** [May 9, 2003, 12:04am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/feeling-guilty-please-help-me-not-feel-so-bad/172399/292 "2003-05-09T00:04:13Z")
Lady venom I have 3 cats. I got them declawed I would not have furniture if I had not done this for them and for me. These are all stray cats that was starving and stray. I am giving them a good life. Don’t feel guilty? anyway your cat is going to get laser which is surely easier on them. I get all my pets spayed or neutered too. ---
**Author:** ![The\_Great\_Unwashed](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/the_great_unwashed/32/4791_2.png) [@The\_Great\_Unwashed](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/The_Great_Unwashed)\ **Post date:** [May 9, 2003, 9:38am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/feeling-guilty-please-help-me-not-feel-so-bad/172399/293 "2003-05-09T09:38:38Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by BiblioCat \* > **I honestly don’t think they even know their claws were removed.** Is this an ameliorating factor, or, an exacerbating factor? ---
**Author:** ![Elza\_B](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/6a8cbe/32.png) [@Elza\_B](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Elza_B)\ **Post date:** [May 9, 2003, 1:21pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/feeling-guilty-please-help-me-not-feel-so-bad/172399/294 "2003-05-09T13:21:45Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by BiblioCat \* > \*\* > I honestly don’t think they even know their claws were removed. My younger cat just can’t figure out why he can’t climb the screen door anymore. \*\* My old girl has always kneading thing- and it’s been fifteen years since she was declawed. It’s funny to watch - she goes over to the scratching post that i have for the younger cats and just scratches and scratches. It didn’t change her personality (although I have seen that happen with others), and the only reason she’s an angry little cat now is because she’s old and arthritic, she just wants to be left alone unless she wants me to hold her or eat, and people and other cats annoy the shit out of her (except for me…I’m her person). Removing her claws didn’t do that. Thanks for the info on the laser removing. I recently moved in with my parents and brought my two NYC apartment cats with me. My roommate and I were bad with these two…we didn’t have any furtniture worth anything (we had a giant, oversized pink chair that already had stuffing coming out of it before the cats even got near it), so we never bothered to correct them when they would scratch on the furniture. Bad move on my part - they’re now four years old, and my boy will claw everything in sight - he’s ruining a patch of carpet on the stairs. Unfortunately, this is completely my fault for not training them better before. I used to trim their claws as kittens, but as they’ve gotten older, it’s more difficult. My parents knew that getting them declawed wasn’t an option when I moved in, and that if that was a problem, I wouldn’t move in. So I may end up replacing the carpet on the stairs for my parents…and I could kick myself for not training these two better when they were younger. I’m trying the water gun issue now, and I do plan on taking them into a groomer to get their claws trimmed, so hopefully, one of the two will help. I may also give the SoftPaws a try, but I have little hope of succeeding with my boy cat - he is the master of getting out of anything and everything he doesn’t like or doesn’t want to do. They are well-loved, well-cared for, and essentially well-behaved cats aside from the clawing - and I can’t blame them for something that I never trained them on. Maybe if I’d had decent furniture in my apartment, we’d have taught them when they were kittens. Ava ---
**Author:** ![CanvasShoes](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/74df32/32.png) [@CanvasShoes](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/CanvasShoes)\ **Post date:** [May 10, 2003, 3:07am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/feeling-guilty-please-help-me-not-feel-so-bad/172399/295 "2003-05-10T03:07:39Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by CrazyCatLady \* > \*\*Well, bad as I hate to encourage the stupid, **TVAA** ’s sentence about a pack of dogs being dangerous actually isn’t self-contradictory. Wolves instinctively avoid humans except when cornered. Feral dogs, on the other hand, have had that instinctive fear of humans bred out of them for, well, as long as they’ve been dogs and not wolves. A pack of feral dogs has no fear of human and thus no issue with attacking humans, and they’ve been known to do it just for kicks. As such, they’re very dangerous indeed. \*\* Explained intelligently, the way you have, it makes sense, but the way he had written it it comes off as a contradiction. In fact, that’s the problem with all his posts, he says something idealistic and ridiculous and then when he gets called on it, posts some vague “explanation”. ---
**Author:** ![elfkin477](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/a9a28c/32.png) [@elfkin477](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/elfkin477)\ **Post date:** [May 10, 2003, 3:30am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/feeling-guilty-please-help-me-not-feel-so-bad/172399/296 "2003-05-10T03:30:50Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by ItsNotMe \* > \*\* Why not cut kid’s hands off, for ruining the house?!?!?! HA? > \*\* What the fuck do toddlers need hands for? It’s not as though they can write or tie their shoes, and you do everything for them anyway. Cutting them off would keep them from breaking shit, which would lead to less child abuse, and you think it’s _wrong_ to cut their hands off? Jesus. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/feeling-guilty-please-help-me-not-feel-so-bad/172399.md?page=14)