Just an observation so don't shoot me....

When we were in Canada years ago many of the cats were declawed as they were inside all the time due to the weather. The people we were staying with said it was common and the cat was quite happy so not sure if it's a bad thing or not.
I've read up on declawing and it seems to be very painful for the cats as the claw is actually attached to bone so basically they are breaking the bone to remove the claw, and for the sake of me keeping his claws clipped and teaching DD to be more gentle I wouldn't want to put him through that.