A different trim...

[susandennis]

Last night, in the middle of the night, Betty came up to bed with me and snuggled up but first she needed to knead. My thigh. Midnight acupuncture.

So today, top on my todo list was trim Betty's nails.

Travis has not taught Betty to man up about nail trimming. And Betty is at least twice as big and maybe more than Travis. And she has furry feet.

First you have to hold her down. Then find the feet. Then find the nails. Then clip. Only between the find her feet and find her nails she squirms so you have to find the feet again. It was a massive struggle.

About the time we finished one paw, Travis came to see if he could help so now she is squirming and pissed at me and squirming and pissed at him and oh joy. But, we did it. We managed to get all ten nails clipped and ready for kneading.

Whew.

Comments

[angelamermaid.livejournal.com]

I can beat that - Comet has extra toes, so I have more nails to find amongst the furry paws.

I clip Comet's nails in the bathroom, because he's stressed enough without having Bonnie shove her face into the proceedings to observe.

[susandennis]

Oh thanks! I did forget to be grateful that there were only 5 nails on each paw!! Separation is a good plan.

[roadskoller.livejournal.com]

Poor Betty. Has she forgiven you yet?

[susandennis]

I guess we'll find out tonight :) She does not generally hold a grudge so I think we're ok.

[albadger.livejournal.com]

Back when I still dared, I would wrap Sparky (see lj icon) in a towel and then pull each foot out in turn for trimming. With most cats, they can actually get to groove on the sensation of being wrapped.

Not Sparky.

[susandennis]

Interesting idea. I'm pretty sure that Betty will vote with Sparky on the wrapping thing but I will probably give it a go next time to make sure. Thanks.

[steve98052.livejournal.com]

That's a clever idea. Maybe I'll try that next time the kittens need a trim. I didn't do it with the old cats because they were so docile, but the kittens are a bit squirmier.

My only real trick is to squeeze a cat's tail between my knees. That seems to work two ways. One, it restrains them at one end. Two, it gives them something to be annoyed about other than the restraint of their paws, and fighting both the tail restraint and the paw restraint reduced the total force on the paw.