As soon as I saw this I knew I had to try it. I have a very nervous, jumpy, ‘touch me not’ kind of cat. Her name is Frog. She is a blue-eyed, long-haired white cat, very pretty and quite deadly! She’s nervous and jumpy because she’s stone deaf and thus is always caught by surprise when another cat or the dog or a person suddenly ‘sneaks’ up on her. Her reaction to being startled is to hit and run. And she hits lightning fast with very, very sharp claws. If you attempt to pet her while she’s sleeping (she sleeps very soundly!), she will disappear in a blink - and you will have just that split second where you notice the blood pouring from your hand or arm before the pain registers in your brain! When she’s asleep, we have learned to stomp the floor or smack the wall before attempting to pet her, so that the vibration will alert her to your presence. She’s okay with being petted as long as she sees you coming, but she has a very low tolerance for being handled or picked up. My son refers to her as the ‘spawn of Satan’.
Perhaps if I had her since she was a kitten, we could have avoided this situation. But she was already two years old when I got her from the humane society and already neurotic. Even so, I’ve had her for ten years now, so perhaps if I had worked with her more, we could have worked things out better. But I didn’t. She’s a cat, she keeps to herself for the most part and we have just learned to live with her idiosyncrasies. She has her own little table, with her own little basket that she keeps to for the most part (mainly to keep the dog from bothering her). This table is in the dining room so she still gets plenty of petting and interaction from family members, although I always warn first time visitors, ‘Yes, she’s lovely - but if you want to pet her, I’ll need you to sign a release of liability form first!’
Unfortunately, she is long-haired and her coat has a very soft, cottony kind of texture. So when she is in a shedding phase, it tends to mat up easily. Since she won’t tolerate being immobilized long enough to brush her out regularly, I usually end up having to take the scissors to her to cut out the mats. This ends up being an ordeal for both of us and usually requires a brave helper to hold and/or distract her while I cut. Luckily this happens only twice a year, so its been manageable. Not fun, but manageable.
She’s in one of those shedding phases now and I noticed the other day, that her coat has started to mat up again. And I remembered this post. It had to be worth a try! My brother dug around in his desk and found a large binder clip. So…I took a deep breath, grabbed Froggy by the scruff and affixed the clip. She froze. She did not act like it was hurting her at all, she just stopped moving. I got the scissors and went to work, cutting out the worst of the mats. She barely twitched an ear. In less than two minutes, I was done. I unclipped her and she very calmly sat up, looking almost relaxed! She didn’t even attempt to escape to the safety of her basket. I was amazed!
This may not work for all cats, but it works for Froggy and I for one, couldn’t be happier! 
