Our cat Stella is a nervous and sometimes grumpy old cat. We adopted her from a local animal shelter as an adult. When we brought her home from the shelter, she hyperventilated and yowled the whole way. She was initially very skittish with us, flinching even when we opened or closed the blinds. Over the years, she's become more comfortable with us, but she has her limits. Perhaps not surprisingly, trimming her claws is one of those limits.
We used to be able to trim a front claw or two at a time occasionally before we moved to our current home. We think the move stressed Stella out as much as it stressed us out, and even though we've been in this home for three years, she hasn't cooperate with claw trimming. Occasionally, Scott will be able to trim a rear claw while she's sleeping, but that's about the extent of our success. Every time we take her to the vet, we pay for a nail trim. But honestly, vet visits with her are stressful (and expensive!) so we try to be sparing with those. It was becoming increasingly clear that she needed at least her front claws trimmed more often that she visits the vet.
I learned recently about a local pet sitting company that also does nail trims and other grooming at home, so I made an appointment. I was somewhat skeptical; I was going to get charged for the visit whether the person could successfully trim her claws or not, and it seemed like an expensive gamble. But I was also desperate.
When the pet sitter/cat groomer came over, I was immediately impressed. She came armed with not one, but two kinds of treats that I hadn't seen before. She made liberal use of the treats to ingratiate herself with Stella. She also spent a good 45 minutes at our place, waiting for Stella to warm up to her before going in for the trim. Stella made some motions of yowling and trying to get away, but honestly, it was a pretty feeble effort, and appeared to me to be more about principal than anything else (and believe me, I've seen her when she's making an honest to goodness effort to get away). In the end, all of her front claws were trimmed and nobody got bitten or scratched in the process! Count me impressed.
This was a good reminder to me that sometimes when you have the money, it's worth spending it to make your life easier. This person clearly has a skill that I don't have. Now, I don't have to worry about Stella getting her claws stuck in something or about being stabbed when she kneads her paws on me. It's definitely a service that will become a regular expense.
