The stair carpet does the clipping.

September is lease month. The walk-through finds the stair nosing frayed in a curve, exactly where a cat meets the turn, and the post in the corner still has the factory smell. The last tenant's cat used the stair. The new tenant's cat will too, unless the tips of the nails are blunt.

In a house with carpeted stairs, a cat does not need a post. The nosing is the post. The weave gives a little, the height is right, and the habit is set before anyone notices. For a while the fray is easy to ignore. Then the landlord, or the person who owns the carpet, is not ignoring it. A post can still be worth having if the cat decides to use it. Many do not, once the stair has taught them a feel. Clipping the hook off the tip is the part that actually protects the carpet.

You are not declawing. We will not talk through anyone who asks us to. You are taking the sharp end off so the scratch does less damage and the nail does not curl into the pad. We sell a scissor clipper for that, not a guillotine. The guillotine circles the nail and squeezes. On a thick nail that squeeze crushes before it cuts, and the nail can split up the length. The scissor style needs a sharp blade and a steady angle. Spare blades are in the same drawer because a dull edge is how people start leaning harder and find the quick.

Dark nails hide the quick. Take a thin slice off the tip and look at the cut face. The pale, dry oval is what you want. A darker center means that nail is done. One nail a day is a legitimate pace for a cat that will not sit through ten toes. If you nick the quick, stop. A styptic stick is on the shelf. Press it on the tip and hold. If the bleeding does not stop, or the cat will not use the foot, that is a veterinarian, not a braver grip.

We do not clip cats or dogs at the counter. We will put the tool in your hand and show the angle on a card. We will not start that lesson on a foot that already hurts. A nail curling into the pad, or a toe that is hot, is a clinic visit before it is a hardware visit.

Dogs in the same buildings annoy a different neighbor. Nails on bare wood carry. Collegetown floors, and a lot of the newer splits near downtown, have no carpet to soften the click. A walk on the Commons does not file a nail down. The paving is hard, and the dog is not digging. Figure on a clip every three or four weeks for a dog that lives indoors, sooner if you can hear one nail longer than the others. The same scissor clipper works. Keep your face out of the kick line. The spring on the clipper we stock is sized for a thick nail. Feel it before you buy it. If it is too stiff for your hand, it will be too stiff on a Sunday night when the dog is done with the idea.

The prices, the file, and what we will not take back once a blade seal is open are on the clippers page. Salt crystals in a paw cleft are a winter problem, not a clipping problem: salt along East State. If the stair is also where the clay from a wet walk ends up, deal with the paws before the wool. That order of work is on the mud page.