Ridiculous! To pick up a cat properly, you need a box.
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I used to baby sit for a family whose cat loved to crawl inside my jacket, which I would the partially zip. Then I would walk around with a warm, purring kidney belt. Our cat, by contrast HATED being picked up. Cats just have different personalities.
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In much the same way there is no one correct way to deal with people, there is no one correct way to pick up a cat.
I’ve had everything from snuggly docile cats to skittish murder cats. One of the worst is also one of the sweetest. She’s a tiny little girl cat living in a house with 3 big males. So, her bluff game isn’t. She decided she would react to any perceived threat by throwing her entire being in to a murderous rampage. And it works. Even the biggest male won’t harass her. Oh, did I mention that her claws are so sharp she can cut you without you feeling it and it can take a minute or two for the blood to start flowing? The method shown in the video will get you bitten and cut as the first attempt to put your hands under her will not end well for you. Think of the Warner Bros. Tazmanian devil and you’ll have some idea of her reaction.
Remove your hand from under her, give her head some scritches, and she will snuggle and love on you all day if you let her. We put her in the carrier by putting a towel down on your lap, waiting for her to come get some attention, and wrapping her up in it.
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Our vet has no furniture in the exam room except a built-in cabinet the cats can’t get in or behind, a bench for humans to sit on and the exam table, which folds up into the wall. Makes it MUCH easier to re-capture cats.
We have a committed shoulder cat. Unfortunately he is a big muscled dude, weighing in at 15 pounds. I have convinced him that laying half on the couch back and half on my shoulders still counts.
our kid is too small to pick up our big dudes- so far. But the rule is, if the kitty wants to leave, the kitty gets to leave. Only exception is me when I am doing necessary cat maintenance like nail trimming, Pantaloon trimming, or medicine administration.
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I almost forgot, and I wish I had a photo, but my younger brother’s late cat would allow him to palm his haunches as he stood vertically in a crazy balancing act.
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Actually, that was an amateur cat the vet promised lots of catnip to.
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Seamus, I love your writing!
My cat is so friggin docile he’s approaching zen (except for 15 minutes every morning when he careens around the house like he just freebased.) I can pick him up however the heck I want, he does not care. But when the carrier comes out for the trip to the vet? Instant violence.
The only way I can get him in is by wrapping him up in a towel (which doesn’t bother him in the least,) THEN pull out the carrier and shove him in as fast as I can. If the carrier is out before he’s wrapped up we might as well cancel the appt. cuz we’re not getting him there.
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Now there’s a hoopy frood who really knows where his towel is.
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We rescued our cat from a family that decided they had enough and tossed him out into the snow to freeze in January five or six years ago. My youngest daughter called me and begged me to take him in until we could find another home for him. Hah.
He arrived in our house with his front legs already declawed by the previous owner, missing one of his back legs from an earlier fox attack, and ungrateful.
The days went on, my allergies didn’t kill me and my wife really wanted to keep him. So here he is. Still.
At least with only one leg that has claws, the odds of getting scratched are reduced. Unless he decides to springboard off of you.
My tactic to avoid getting scratched is to avoid handling the cat.
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Okay, this has been ‘My Happy Place’ for years, so don’t go and clog up the comments section:
This kitty is a dead ringer for my old Shoulder Cat. She weighed 18 pounds and could jump five feet straight up and land on a bookshelf, but completely pratfall trying get up on the coffee table.
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The cat in my avatar is a shoulder cat. She left our household and moved in at my Granddaughter’s apartment. She still recognizes me and will leap onto my shoulder from ground level even when I’m in mid-conversation.
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You may not know this already, but she’s a good kitty! (I can tell by the pixels)
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Actually, my cat will stand up on her back legs on the bed, paws stretching up until I pick her up. Then she actually arches her back to stretch even more before she grabs onto my shoulder. Then she gets very purry and tries to groom the back of my head. It’s very much like the video except she’s not as tall.
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Pro tip: tilt the cat carrier onto its end so the opening (door) is facing up. Much easier to drop cat in and harder for cat to climb out.
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Oh, she has magic eye mind control over me. Apparently she is the greatest kitty, or so I’ve been compelled to believe. Then again, it might just be toxoplasmosis. Hard to say.
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As kittens they are practically made of rubber.
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My mum’s cat is a Bengal, which is an extra source of individuality in itself. These Bengals have to have a wild ancestor less than five generations prior or something like that to be a Bengal, and let me tell you, that one ancestor wields outsized significance. They’re high-maintenance, skittish, and well, a bit wild.
Mumbo’s on holiday in France for a while, and Kiri has been doing sloppy poos garnished with blood, so I’ve been having to visit her every night (in addition to the catsitter in the mornings) to give her medicine…
She’s only a small cat, about four kilos, but damn. The syringe of antibiotics I have to squirt down her throat usually ends up anywhere but, as she fights like a fucking tiger, finding a way out of the towel I’ve wrapped her in, in seconds flat, yowling like a demon and threatening to severely shred me, and she’s getting better at it. I can’t believe how damn strong she is.
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In her mind, you’re trying to kill her. 
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