Safety

Remember, the most important aspect of any hold is assuring the natural biting and scratching range of motion for the feline is out of reach to make contact with your skin. 

When accessing the sani region I will show you my most successful technique. 

Note the following:

• Foot
  • The foot in my hand is always in the natural alignment to prevent injury to the hip and knee
  • I never have a hold tighter than the resistance of the cat
• Face
  • The teeth are always facing away from me
  • Applying pressure on the back of the neck keeps the head from turning, which prevents the cat from biting my leg or arm
• Claws
  • Claws are away from me
  • With slight pressure on the shoulder, the front paws are kept from clawing me as I work.
  • I have one back foot in my hand making those claws safe from injuring me. The other back foot usually cannot make contact with my body. In a very active cat, I will place a towel over the head and between the back legs to keep the bottom back leg from clawing me or kicking my tools out of my hand. 

Angry Cat Video

As we all know, when a cat gets angry and the groom goes longer, the technique isn't as clean. This cat has an air muzzle on, so I am not worried about staying out of the bite zone. My left arm is pressing the shoulder blades into my body. I am holding one front foot and the opposite back foot with my left hand. The cat is resisting with the back left foot, so I am leaving it in my leg so I have one less paw to worry about.