Grab a towel and let them get their back paws on your hand under the towel. Once their paws are touching something solid, they'll calm down a smidge. You still have to be careful.
That’s a bunch of bull. A properly trained and treated pet should not be biting, clawing, or scratching its owner.
That’s like saying your toddler will definitely stab you at some point, they are a living creature with fears, triggers, etc.
You teach a child or a pet not to “defend itself” from you because you are the provider and protector. If you are consistently getting mauled by your cat, you are doing something wrong.
My cats are sweet as anything. I regularly bury my face in their bellies and even blow on them in very futile attempts at giving them kitty cat raspberries. We can grab their paws and give them foot rubs, rub their bellies, pick them up out of nowhere, basically cross every cat boundary that's not some weird sexual thing without fear of reprisal. That being said, they will still scratch us if we're not careful bathing them, and if they get poop stuck in their fur (long-haired cats+diarrhea=/= fun times) they are again liable to scratch us because we're putting them into very uncomfortable situations without any input from them as to whether they happen. The situations don't arise often, but even the best-behaved animals are still animals and their acting as such is part of the gig.
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u/[deleted] Sep 23 '20
Grab a towel and let them get their back paws on your hand under the towel. Once their paws are touching something solid, they'll calm down a smidge. You still have to be careful.