On the night after Christmas I took the opportunity to dip my toe back into the pool of insanity: applying plastic nail tips to my cat. It was a two-step process. Giving him a sedative was the first step of the process. Started with a half pill in a little ball of cheese on top of his catfood. I tried not to hover so as not to alarm him. But I did glance over toward his food bowl now and then. I noticed the cheese was partially eaten but a portion of that pink pill still remained. I waited for the drug to begin taking effect. Then I scooped him up and tried to feed him the rest of the pill. Took three attempts; I do not have much practice giving a pill to a cat. He became much more drowsy.
I set the stage for step two. Nail clippers. Adhesive. 2 towels. Heating pad beneath one of the towels to soothe him. Nail tips. And finally, my reluctant assistant, Cristy.
I gave the kitty to Cristy; she placed him on the towel, covered him with the other towel and I began clipping the nails on his right paw. He objected loudly. Cristy held him and talked to him sweetly but he didn’t care much about sweet talk.
I applied the nail tips to the right paw. Phew. Half finished.
Kitty stepped up the protests. Oh, it sounded like he was pleading for his dignity. I felt terrible, Cristy felt terrible. I thought we might be killing him. His strength was fading and he lay panting on the towel. Work quickly.
I clipped the left paw and applied the nail tips. We finished and Cristy carried him over to his favorite chair to sleep it off.
Good kitty. Hope you can easily adjust to these nail tips because I sure don’t want to reapply these, at least for a little while.
I don't think in a million years I'd be brave enough to try that! Bravo! You should have videod it. It could have been a source of future entertainment!
ReplyDeleteThat entertainment may be here more quickly than I realized. As a reward for our efforts, I found one of the plastic nail tip covers on a blanket this morning. So a replay of the process is in the near future. I'm just interested to see how many other plastic claw covers pop up around the house today...
ReplyDeleteWhat's the purpose of giving your cat fake fingernails? (I have two dogs, so I'm not cat knowledgeable.)
ReplyDeleteBrave! Diane, did you leave out the part where Kitty scratches you or was it that flawless? I ENVY you.. still have 'war' marks from 2 months ago from my cat =/
ReplyDeleteThe product - SoftPaws - is designed as a humane alternative for declawing cats that like to scratch their claws on upholstered furniture. The little nail tips are not permanent and have to be replaced from time to time as they fall off, but it is painless and harmless for the cat. I suppose, unless the kitty needs to use his claws in defense. I think my cat pretty much likes to take cat naps indoors.
ReplyDeleteI did leave that out - but just a tiny scratch on the wrist and on one of the fingers of my left hand. Not much harm. It would have been SO much worse (like going to the emergency room bad) if we had not given him the sedative.
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