How to make provisions in my will for care of my cats?

I plan to update my will sometime within the next few weeks, and I would
like to provide protection for my cats. A friend has agreed to care for my
cats if anything were to happen to me - in fact, she asked to be named as
their guardian. That is a great comfort to me because she is wonderful with
cats and has a great deal of experience. She is also adamantly opposed to
declawing, and that is very important to me. My concern is: I want to
provide a "backup" in case this plan could not be fulfilled (just as one
does with children). I am in good health and hope this won't be needed for
many years, so I am trying to plan ahead for various possibilities. I
originally planned to name my sister as guardian to my pets (and could still
name her as secondary to my friend), but I now realize that is not a good
idea because my sister has had all of her cats declawed. After several years
of talking to her about it, it is obvious to me that she still thinks that
is the "normal" way to live with indoor cats, so I want to come up with some
plan whereby my cats would be protected against any possibility of
declawing. One of her declawed cats now sprays regularly all around the
house, so the whole atmosphere would not be what I want for my cats.

Here is one of my questions to go along with all of this: I am going to
provide a fairly substantial amount of money from my retirement plan to
provide for the care of my furbabies. If I live a normal life span, that
means that the cats involved would not be the ones I have now; so I know
that my will should provide for *any* pets under my care at the time of my
death. However, is there any reasonable way to attach conditions (such as
*no declaw*) to the money I will provide, to create some assurance that the
cats would never be declawed? As I said, I'm not concerned about the person
who will be named in my will as "first" guardian, but I do have major
concerns about what to do after that. I will obviously have a lengthy
discussion with my attorney, but I hope some of you may have some ideas for
me to take with me when I carry through with this plan. It will probably be
several weeks (or even a few months) before I do this, so I have time to do
some research if anyone wants to suggest some specific sites.

Thanks for your help! Incidentally, I live in Texas, and the will would be
drawn under Texas law.
--
MaryL
(take out the litter to reply)


Photos of Holly and Duffy:
http://tinyurl.com/8y54 (introducing Duffy to Holly)
http://tinyurl.com/8y56 (Duffy and Holly "settle in")

From: "MaryL" AKE-OUT-THE-LITTER


Thanks for your help! Incidentally, I live in Texas, and the will would be
drawn under Texas law.
--

I'm not familiar with Texas probate law, but would imagine it would be similar
state to state. You could have your attorney insert a pet codicil and put in
the condition regarding declawing, as a general condition, and also specific to
your sister, should she become guardian should your friend not be able to act.
However, as to the no-declaw being enforced, I would imagine that even if your
sister does declaw the cat, since cats are considered property, not much can be
done once she declaws the cat. If it were my cats, I would be looking for a
different secondary guardian.

I believe I have an example pet codicil at work and could check it for you, but
I won't be back to work till Jan. 5th.

Lauren
________
See my cats: http://community.webshots.com/album/56955940rWhxAe
Raw Diet Info: http://www.holisticat.com/drjletter.html
http://www.geocities.com/rawfeeders/ForCatsOnly.html
Declawing Info: http://www.wholecat.com/articles/claws.htm

From: "MaryL" AKE-OUT-THE-LITTER


Thanks for your help! Incidentally, I live in Texas, and the will would be
drawn under Texas law.
--

I'm not familiar with Texas probate law, but would imagine it would be similar
state to state. You could have your attorney insert a pet codicil and put in
the condition regarding declawing, as a general condition, and also specific to
your sister, should she become guardian should your friend not be able to act.
However, as to the no-declaw being enforced, I would imagine that even if your
sister does declaw the cat, since cats are considered property, not much can be
done once she declaws the cat. If it were my cats, I would be looking for a
different secondary guardian.

I believe I have an example pet codicil at work and could check it for you, but
I won't be back to work till Jan. 5th.

Lauren
________
See my cats: http://community.webshots.com/album/56955940rWhxAe
Raw Diet Info: http://www.holisticat.com/drjletter.html
http://www.geocities.com/rawfeeders/ForCatsOnly.html
Declawing Info: http://www.wholecat.com/articles/claws.htm

Ask a lawyer!

Ask a lawyer!

"PawsForThought" wrote in message
...
From: "MaryL" AKE-OUT-THE-LITTER


Thanks for your help! Incidentally, I live in Texas, and the will would
be
drawn under Texas law.
--

I'm not familiar with Texas probate law, but would imagine it would be
similar
state to state. You could have your attorney insert a pet codicil and put
in
the condition regarding declawing, as a general condition, and also
specific to
your sister, should she become guardian should your friend not be able to
act.
However, as to the no-declaw being enforced, I would imagine that even if
your
sister does declaw the cat, since cats are considered property, not much
can be
done once she declaws the cat. If it were my cats, I would be looking for
a
different secondary guardian.

I believe I have an example pet codicil at work and could check it for
you, but
I won't be back to work till Jan. 5th.

Lauren
________

Thanks, Lauren. I would appreciate any information about the pet codicil
that you can locate. I'm not in a hurry, but I do want to do this *right.*

MaryL

"PawsForThought" wrote in message
...
From: "MaryL" AKE-OUT-THE-LITTER


Thanks for your help! Incidentally, I live in Texas, and the will would
be
drawn under Texas law.
--

I'm not familiar with Texas probate law, but would imagine it would be
similar
state to state. You could have your attorney insert a pet codicil and put
in
the condition regarding declawing, as a general condition, and also
specific to
your sister, should she become guardian should your friend not be able to
act.
However, as to the no-declaw being enforced, I would imagine that even if
your
sister does declaw the cat, since cats are considered property, not much
can be
done once she declaws the cat. If it were my cats, I would be looking for
a
different secondary guardian.

I believe I have an example pet codicil at work and could check it for
you, but
I won't be back to work till Jan. 5th.

Lauren
________

Thanks, Lauren. I would appreciate any information about the pet codicil
that you can locate. I'm not in a hurry, but I do want to do this *right.*

MaryL

"Luvskats00" wrote in message
...
Ask a lawyer!

I certainly will do that. I already have a will and will use the same
attorney to draft a new will (or add a codicil to it). At this point, I'm
just looking for suggestions of what questions I should ask because I think
this issue may be one that many attorneys do not emphasize.

MaryL

"Luvskats00" wrote in message
...
Ask a lawyer!

I certainly will do that. I already have a will and will use the same
attorney to draft a new will (or add a codicil to it). At this point, I'm
just looking for suggestions of what questions I should ask because I think
this issue may be one that many attorneys do not emphasize.

MaryL

On Sat, 27 Dec 2003 13:51:37 -0600, "MaryL"
-OUT-THE-LITTER wrote:

I plan to update my will sometime within the next few weeks, and I would
like to provide protection for my cats.

Here is a link to one pet codicil. Perhaps you could adapt language to
fit your conditions.
http://www.whippetview.com/codicil.html

There are a number of books on the topic. This one looks interesting,
but I haven't read it.
http://www.perpetualcarebook.com/products/pcbook.htm

BarB