I may warn you this is just coming from a crazy cat lady who has been around several cats her whole life. I am not an expert and I know this topic is very controversial; these are just my opinions from my personal experience.

Let me start with the pros:

Cats are little warriors and seem like they really do have nine lives. The thing about them is that they do tend to heal fast, which is great considering they undergo surgery.

That brings me to my next pro... Even though cats are in pain while they heal, they always seem to rest quickly and are back to their playful selves. I have been through this many times with the cats that I have been around throughout my life. Every single one is back to playing within 24 hours after they come home from surgery. It makes me happy to see them enjoy themselves quickly after they go through something like that. Like I said earlier, cats are warriors; they know how to adapt to changes that huge for them faster than us humans do.

This last pro is quite selfish on us cat owners, but your furniture and belongings won't be destroyed. Cats with claws usually like to scratch things whether they have scratching posts or not. My old cat pepper scratched up the wooden framing on some of the doorways in my house. Its kind of nice when cats don't have claws so that our furniture stays intact.

Alright, the cons are here:

The brutal truth is that the equivalent to cats getting declawed is us humans getting our finger and toe nails ripped out. We use our nails just as much as cats do and imagine functioning without nails. Imagine walking on your feet without toe nails; yes, this wouldn't be that bad, but imagine the pain during the healing process. I don't know about you, but I wouldn't enjoy that very much.

This con is also considered the brutal truth in my opinion. As humans, doing this to a cat is us taking full control over another living, breathing being. I know they cant talk and it is a domesticated animal, but they still have a brain and emotions like we do.

The last con, in my opinion, is that this does have to be very painful for cats. Cats are given painkillers and whatnot during surgery, but afterwards, they are usually left with nothing. They are waking up after surgery with their nails pulled out, and they must heal on their own. How terrible does this sound? A small animal who gives you so much love and affection is being put through this because of your decision.

I know this is more of a serious article compared to what I have written about in the past. However, my fellow cat lover best friend and I were hanging out the other night, and the topic of cats being declawed came up. We both talked about both sides of the controversial topic and I was instantly inspired to write about it. I thought about my personal experience throughout my life with cats and began to make a list of pros and cons. I wanted to write about my own opinions knowing that not everyone may think exactly like me.