Who else has got ticklish feet?

[Mollycat]

My old Fluffypants Boo used to have ticklish feet, by which I mean the foot, from "funny backwards knee" which is actually ankle, down to "paw" which is in fact toes. If I stroked to "soles" of his feet, after a few seconds he would stretch and fan out his toes as hard as he could. It was so sweet and funny! But does anyone else's cat have ticklish feet like that?

[Ruth B]

I know one of the cats the family had when I was a child had incredibly ticklish back feet. I have a feeling it was Sam, the big, soft, black cat that adopted us (and occasionally helped out in my Dad's dental surgery), but can't be entirely sure. I do remember that which ever it was was fine with being handled, having myself and my sister, then just pre teens, carry him around and maul him about with out any problems, but touch his back feet and he would snatch them away from you, do it more than once and he would be up and off, or struggling to get away. Having very ticklish feet myself I can quite understand his reaction.

Blue our old Ragdoll also had slightly ticklish feet, if you got through all the fur to the actual feet themselves, again his were the draw back and curl them up type of reaction to it. He also hated having his claws clipped. He was so laid back most of the time you could do anything with him, but take the clippers to a claw and he turned into a raging banshee. One time at the vets when he was having his annual check up and we asked the vet to check his claws, after a couple of clips he was howling and yowling bad enough to bring one of the vet nurses in from reception to see what was happening, it must have sounded like he was being mutilated. I was holding on to him at the time and fortunately had a heavy waxed cotton coat on, it was the only time I ever knew him try to bite me. After that we learnt to do it at home, one claw at a time, eventually he did settle to having two or even three clipped in one sitting, but he never liked having them done. I always wondered, having adopted him at 3 years old and having been told he had been a show kitten, did someone try and clip his claws when he was younger and get too close to the quick and hurt him.

[Mollycat]

Boo was a blue ragdoll, how funny! We actually fell out with the local vet and left them, over Boo's claws. He had gone in for a dental and came home with a flea and badly trimmed claws. I had not long had him, maybe 6 or 8 months, and he had only really just learned to retract a little extra to walk on carpet without falling flat on his face, so I was absolutely livid. When I rang to complain, the vet nurse "thought they needed doing" and claimed he had scratched the vet. No, Boo never scratched the vet, and they didn't "need doing" and certainly not without asking the owner first. To be fair it was just the last straw, I was fed up of never seeing the same vet twice (in a practice that has one consulting room) and really she did me a favour as our new vet might be a few miles away but we know we're in good hands.

But getting pills down him was a challenge and he would bite then if he needed to.

[Ruth B]

I've been lucky with vets, we've been at the same one for over 20 years now, and while there was one time when things seemed to go downhill they did pick up again. There had been a string of small issues and it was that time after my Mum had not long since died, and I was trying to find out what was wrong with her cat, so not a good time generally. Stroppy had been in for blood tests and the vet who was dealing with her was meant to ring us to let us know when to collect her. The phone call never came, even after we had called several times to try and find out what was happening, so we decided that we would just turn up and hope to see someone when we collected her. When we got there we found out that the vet who had seen her had been help up at another practice (the vets we go to have several) and that was apparently why she hadn't phoned, by this time it was abut 6.30 and the vets should shut at 7.00. Fortunately one of the senior vets was there and offered to go through the blood results with us. Rather than make a fuss in public I took the opportunity to let her know that we weren't happy with the way things had been handled and the other little issues that we had recently had. A short time later they sent out an anonymous questionnaire asking peoples opinions of the practice and of how things had been handled, I filled that in quite starkly as well, with what I said they could probably work out who had sent it. Whatever happened behind the scenes, it worked, and over the last couple of years things had improved again. When Saturn went in to have his canine root removed and the rest of the teeth checked they rang me about 3 times that morning, once at the start to let me know all his back teeth need to come out as well, his incisors and premolars had already gon by themselves, then after a couple of hours to say he was still in surgery, then about an hour later to say it was all done and they were letting him come around. I can't quite remember if they said then that I could collect him that evening or if they actually rang a forth time about 4.00 so I could arrange a time to pick him up. That was actually above the type of service I expect, but was very nice to receive. They are also quite reasonably priced, only about £300 for an overnight stay, full bloods done before hand, about 3 hours in surgery, as well as an antibiotic injection and the follow up check. They came close to losing us as customers, but for the time being I'm happy to stay put.