A little story about a girl named, George. I have a female cat that was feral when she was found and adopted by my sister and brother-in-law. They kept her until she was about 1 1/2 yrs old and then I adopted her from them. When I brought her home, she proceeded to ruin a leather chair that I have in my house and quite a few nights of waking up to claw marks as well. I took her back to the beach to have her declawed at a doctor down there and a nice 5 day recovery for her and me. Right before we left, my brother-in-law called me to ask which vet I was taking her to and I explained it was the one they have used according to her records. He was concerned about the doctors capabilities and told me that they did not take the other 3 cats there anymore. It was a little too late to change the appt. so we decided to proceed to that vet. What harm right, a simple front declawing, they do them everyday, all day. We'll when I picked her up, she was in so much pain. I had her bandages removed 2 days later and one of her paws was crushed, all the pads of her feet had been removed on that paw and 3 pads on the other. We had found out that he used nail clippers to remove the nails and had botched it. Needless to say we never took her back to that vet and a very nasty letter went out. The next few months George went to 4 specialist near where I live to try to find a way to correct the problem. Everytime she jumped, she would wince, I can't tell you the guilt I felt over causing this sweet kitten the pain she went through. They wanted to try experiemental surgery on her to shorten her paws, remove bones, etc. I decided against this as they couldn't promise me that she would be any better and may in fact have been worse. I then found a doctor that suggested daily doses of oral pain meds (phenobarbitol) for a month, so that we could "reset" her pain reseptors. Luckily this treatment worked. She is 4 1/2 now and still as playful as a kitten.
So yes, I would definitely think twice about the declawing!!!