This is my surprised face

[lydy]

Lady Jane Grey does not like having her claws clipped. At all.

I got one paw done with some snapping and struggling and a lot of growling and hissing. I decided to wait and do the other paw a bit later. I did errands, and then attempted the second paw. Having had time to think about this, and strategize, she was much more violent in her resistance. I got bit once, and used a blanket to restrain her, somewhat inexpertly. Man, she hates that a lot. She got a case of the sulks once I finished and went away for a while.

My theory has always been that if you let the cat win this particular fight, you will never win again. So I'm pretty stubborn. So, it would appear, is Lady Jane Grey.

She appears to have been poorly socialized. She really likes people, and really likes being petted. But she will bite if you pet her wrong, and she also bit Raphael the other day when Raphael was not petting her, evidently as a way of getting Raphael to start petting her. So, um, there you go. Inadequately socialized. I will have to ask my vet how to manage this. I don't think she's mean, I think she just never learned not to communicate with her teeth.

She has a wonderful little purr. It's a bit uneven, and when she gets going, it has little harmonic trills in it. She's currently sacked out on the chair next to me, looking like the sweetest thing on the planet.

Comments

[bibliofile.livejournal.com]

Aw KITTY.

Talking With Teeth, hm. Well at least she has purring down, so that's a start.

Saw photos on someone else's FB yesterday, v cute and cat-like.

[carbonel]

So it's all my fault that I let Morwen win that fight once. Hmph. Honestly, the time I gave up on it as a bad job was every bit as fraught as the time you attempted it.

On the other hand, the woman at PetSmart had no problems. I think the impermeable gloves helped a lot.

[lydy.livejournal.com]

Well, if Morwen was as violent the first time you tried to clip her claws as the time I tried, then letting her win that fight was your only reasonable option.

Lady Jane was difficult, but it was possible. And she's not yet properly socialized, but she very much wants to please, and I'm hoping to leverage those things into being allowed to clip her claws.

I keep on wanting to get a cat-bag with little zippers to extrude one foot at a time. I made a cat bag out of an old pair of jeans for Chumley when I needed to do force-feed him, and I needed just his head exposed but me protected form his four feet. There must be an equivalent out there, somewhere, which actually lets you get at one foot at a time.

[lydy.livejournal.com]

And, I've just been viciously savaged. She wanted to be petted, but it was more than she could handle, and she bit and clawed me and ran away. She's currently rather upset at having been yelled at, and I'm bleeding. Yay, poorly socialized cats.

I shouldn't have pet her. She was clearly a bit over-stimulated. But when I held out my hand, she rubbed against it, so I thought it would be safe. Oops.

[lydy.livejournal.com]

In Lady's defense, I should point out that she didn't really hurt me that badly. She gave me a couple of welts which have since subsided, and one little pin prick that drew blood. This was not the act of a cat trying to do damage. She could have hurt me much more than she did. This was the act of a cat with poor impulse control who was over-stimulated. She kind of hid, afterwards, as if embarrassed. When I eventually approached her, she jumped up on the armchair so I could pet her better and was lovely and charming about it. I think this is a completely manageable problem. She clearly was with people at some point, but somehow hasn't really gotten sufficient training in how to interact with people.