Well, I've had cats for over 20 years and have always thought de-clawing was inhumane. Mutilating animals has never been in style in my mind.

Sorry that doesn't help answer your question though since she's only 7 - 10 ...

Well unfortunately there's still enough people for whom it hasn't gone out of style - so I don't think that would be a reliable way to judge a cat's age. I would guess though that its been in the last 5-7 years that people have begun to be more aware and informed about the bad effects it can have on a cat - pain, behavior problems, biting, avoiding litter box because cat learns to associate box with pain, etc.). And the alternatives are more well known now (scratching post, regular nail trim, "soft-paws," etc.)

Congrats on your new kitty/family member- she is luck to have found you!!

Not an expert by any means, but isn't declawing kinda like cutting off the first knuckle of your fingers?? Have only been a cat person for about 3 years and luckily inappropriate scratching has not been a big problem with June.

My friends routinely claw any cats they get. I tried to talk one out of it, but she was worried about her furniture.

The cat never showed any inclination to scratch the furniture, and she didn't even give it a chance with a cat condo.

Yes, klseiverg, it is an amputation of the tips of the toes. That's what they should call it.

It's more like amputation of the first finger joint - cats use their paws/claws a lot like hands.

I'm not sure when it became taboo but vets seem to be able to estimate their age reasonably accurately based on other factors.

I will add that I've adopted several declawed cats and they had absolutely no problems of any kind. I have also had cats that weren't declawed that did do significant damage to carpet and woodwork - in spite of a variety of efforts to prevent that.

I hate the idea of declawing as much as anyone else but I would have a hard time with a cat that damaged things with its claws. Hence I seek out the already declawed cats. I also do that because I know then they WILL be kept indoors where declawed cats belong.

I think a lot worse things are happening to many cats other than declawing. If you equate declawing to human amputation, I can personally attest that there are many things much worse than that, having experienced it myself.