Cat claws are fascinating. I knew they were retractable, but before close contact with Nysse, I didn’t know that I could make them appear – I thought that was fully under the cat’s control. But you can just squeeze slightly in the right spot and out pops a claw. Sometimes when Nysse is near me and all relaxed, I poke his claws in and out just for fun.

His claws are very sharp. I know you can trim them, but I have more or less decided not to do so with Nysse’s claws. He’s an outdoor cat most of the time and wears them down naturally. The claws on his rear paws are much shorter and blunter – he clearly uses them a lot more to jump and climb. According to the internet it’s possible for cats’ claws to grow so long that they curve back into the toe, but I can’t think of how that could happen unless the cat lives indoors on plush carpets only. Or maybe some cats’ claws grow faster than others.

Nysse is quite good about not scratching furniture or anything. Occasionally he digs his claws into the sofa to stretch, but doesn’t actually scratch. He much prefers to scratch the cat tree – I guess whoever designed it knew what cats like. And he very rarely scratches any of us nowadays. The only thing he’s actually damaged is my office chair – twice now he’s dug his claws in deep enough to leave marks. I can’t remember the first occasion, but the second time was when he was really annoyed at me for something. I think maybe I took something from him that I didn’t want him to play with.