How can I safely trim my cat's claws?

I've never trimmed my cats claws, and I've never had trouble with them digging into me when they feel like kneading, but I had them since they were kittens, and all I would do is holler with a very loud *OUCH* when they dug in too deep when they were kittens, and it's amazing how careful they've learned to be... they'll start kneading, and I can see their claws coming out, and they'll stop it *just* at the point where the tips have gone through the clothing and are just barely touching the skin. You have to understand that for a cat, claws *are* their fingers. To declaw a cat is as inhuman as having your fingers cut off, and their claws are *very* sensitive.

If you clip them wrong, it's like if someone took some pliers to your teeth and broke them off. Also, if you clip a cat's claws to make them less sharp, you're increasing the risk that the cat will hurt itself, because it might need to jump up and/or it might slip and start falling, and it's going to be counting on its claws to be able to dig into something to save itself. That being said, I make sure the cats have something proper to claw on, so I got a long, heavy branch that had fallen from a tree after a windstorm, scraped off most of the loose bark, stuck it upright in a corner of the family room (cats are semi-social in that they like to lounge around others that they can see) and I fastened a couple of slabs of plywood with carpeting tacked onto it to the higher points of the branch, so now the cats just scoot up the trunk of the branch and hang out from the carpeted plywood platforms.It's amazing how agile they are at climbing the thing.

They would climb slow at first, but now they skit up the thing in two or three super-fast motions. And yes, when they themselves feel like their claws are getting too long, they claw against the base of the trunk.

I have a crazy kitten who doesn't like to be held down. I tried clippers but the noise makes me cringe and I can tell they hurt her so I invested in the pedi-paw. I love it, it's really simple to use and she actually likes it.

She doesn't move during it and I like the fact that it doesn't make that nails on a chalkboard crunch noise.

I cant really gove you an answer,but what I can give you is a way to a solution, that is you have to find the anglde that you relate to or peaks your interest. A good paper is one that people get drawn into because it reaches them ln some way.As for me WW11 to me, I think of the holocaust and the effect it had on the survivors, their families and those who stood by and did nothing until it was too late.