Marlowe...

[jbsegal]

IMG_2094,
originally uploaded by JBSegal.

Large and often-times cuddly.

Now, if he'd only let us cut his claws...

Comments

[ivorjawa.livejournal.com]

FAT PUFF!

[xeger.livejournal.com]

I can recommend holding the scruff of his neck in your teeth while you attempt to cut his claws . . .

[intuition-ist.livejournal.com]

deserving of icon status. so.cute!

[gale_storm]

He looks so cute in that picture, so innocent, but I know better. Good luck with the claws -- I have a couple of scars on one arm from that nonsense, and that taught me a lesson.

[starphire.livejournal.com]

He looks like he has blue eyes in the photo - a rare thing to see in a photograph of a cat's eyes. So are they blue IRL?

[jbsegal.livejournal.com]

I'd done so before you replied. :)

[jbsegal.livejournal.com]

Hm. His irises are yellow/green. His pupils DO seem to look blue most of the time, come to think of it...

[jbsegal.livejournal.com]

Come visit. I'll let you try that. :)

Re: pictures and descriptions

[wolfieboy.livejournal.com]

I'm guessing that the description could apply to either of the subjects in the picture.

[luckylefty.livejournal.com]

If you want to be able to cut your cat's claws, the thing to do is to get in the habit, when you're petting and she's purring, or extending and retracting his claws. That way, when you do the same thing while cutting claws, there's no "something is up? What's going on?" reaction from kitty.

[jbsegal.livejournal.com]

Would that it were that easy.

To start with, he's skittish about people handling his feet, but, even though I've been doing pretty much that - playing with his feet gently when he's in a relaxed and purr-y mood, as soon as I try to get his paw grasped in the way I'd have to to cut the claws OR if I happen to have a nail trimmer in my other hand (closed, not in position to use, not with intent to use), he senses something's up and will go in to skin-shredding mode.

[koshmom.livejournal.com]

Warren (12 year old cat - I got him at 6 years old because he was mean and his owner - guy who bought my house - didn't want him anymore) used to be like that. I trained him by finding a food he REEALLY liked (with Warren that was easy...kitty treats!) and breaking them into smaller pieces so the training could last longer. Touched him to the verge of just-before-he-starts-attacking, and give a treat. Eventually the "verge of just-before-attack" lets you get in further and further. Took me a whole can of Pounce and a couple of months.

Make the trimmer a "fun" thing too...I rubbed him with the trimmer, let him bite it, etc. Lots of treats, etc for getting comfortable with the trimmer, even get him used to seeing the trimmer in your hands, moving it towards his paw but not cutting in the later episodes of his training. It can take a couple of months to get to that point. Be patient. You might even want to buy a new trimmer for training because the old one might have too many bad memories.

Now I can trim all nails on all paws with only Warren "supervising" (i.e. looking at me carefully).

[xlii.livejournal.com]

aww.... catloaf....

[amberwood.livejournal.com]

Having 15 cats... we are are nail trimming masters! However, that said, we do have scars from some of them. Different methods work for different cats. We have some that you can cajole into it by play and belly scratches, others need a muzzle. We have a couple feral-ish cats that the only way to stop them from biting the crap out of you is a muzzle. Nice soft thing with velcro that covers their eyes. Subdues them right away, you can clip fast and then undo the muzzle and give them tons of love and treats. Sometimes after a couple times of muzzling you can leave it loose and eventually just not use it. You can also try rolling them in a towel and just pulling a leg out.

Out of the 15, we only have 2 that we need the muzzle on and oddly enough they are the smallest. The really huge cat just rolls over and holds up a paw.

What a cute boy.

[netpositive.livejournal.com]

Ok, I guess you're cute too, JB (enough people have told me so that I know I'm the one with the odd taste buds *grin*). But that Marlowe is one handsome dude cat!

[amsra.livejournal.com]

It works.... When you bite them on their scruff, they think it's Mom. Believe me I've had plenty of cats that were less than easy to claw clip and this technique has always worked in the end. You do get a mouthful of hair tho :)