How to Handle a Kitten

"When you hold a kitten or a puppy, never ever pick it up by its front legs especially a puppy because you can break something or pull a tendon in there. You just don’t do that and nor do you pick them up like this. Their mother’s don’t do it like this. Their mother has a different hold. She knows what she is doing. You stick it under here, under the ribs and if it’s a puppy that way and hold on because if she wants down you don’t let them fall or you don’t let them jump. If she wants down and she starts scratching to get down, I am just going to get scratched but I cannot let go of her because she can fall on her head and kill herself. Too much can happen. You don’t ever want to drop a pet, so you have to think about the skeletal part. That is what you hold. The ribs and the pelvis are right there and she is comfortable this way. If you hold them like this, they like that but they can get out real easy if they get scared so I always when I’m grooming if I’m taking a dog back to its cage or a cat, you hold the leg while you’ve got them because this is not a protective hold here. So if she got scared and wanted to jump, I’ve still got the leg so she won’t hit the floor. That’s just how you do it. Make sure you got a good hold of them because even though she is nice and gentle and quiet, anything could scare her and you do not let go of them. When they have a lot of hair, you have to teach your children how to hold them because they have a tendency to squeeze them. So make sure you have a hold of them but they’re loose."