Cali hates having her claws clipped.

Ok, I'm kind of at a loss. I've never encountered a cat that growls and cries when you clip their claws. Cali hates having her claws done. Back and front.
All the others have no real problems with having their nails done, but she cries, growls, squeaks, squirms, like we are hurting her and we've never once hurt her while doing her claws.
I am wondering if when she was very young, someone might have hurt her paws in some way and she's never gotten over it. Physically her paws are fine, but emotionally she is a wreck whenever I try to clip her claws. I feel so sorry for her. I know I'm not hurting her, but I just feel so bad when she is crying and squirming about.
I give her treats to associate the clippings with only good things but she still hates it with every fiber of her being. Poor thing, any suggestions to make it easier for her?

I don't have any suggestions but am sending vibes out to the scared little girl and you

do you ever just gently handle her paws when you are petting or cuddling her? or do you only touch them when a clipping is coming?

Poor girl. It is possible someone clipped nails too short when younger. Some cats get used to it, some give you a hard time their entire life! Ling is 2 1/2 yrs old and still will grumble and fuss when clipping nails. She's a lot better then she used to be. I trim and check nails as needed about once a week.

How often are you clipping the nails? If longer then once a week or once every two weeks, you might want to do it more often. Also when you are not clipping nails, play with her feet/toes without the clippers.

All of mine except Fluffy go crazy when I try to clip claws, and I always end up with scratches. Fluffy doesn't exactly love it, but she will act like some peasant is giving her a clumsy manicure.
Pearl's claws get like razors, and she will show mw every time I even touch her paws. I am trying lately to rub her paws while petting her, but so far she isn't going for it.

Aww...poor thing.

Like GoldenKitty45 says, you could try to do it often and just clip a little every time so she gets used to it. However, if she's an emotional wreck every time that might not be the best solution.

Have you tried to clip them when she's very sleepy or asleep?

I don't have any advice, but I feel bad for the poor little sweetie.

When we got Swanie at the shelter, they showed us how to clip his claws. One guy held him like you would a baby and the other one clipped. He didn't squirm or anything. So when it came clipping time, I got out the clippers and decided to let him sniff them. He took one look and totally freaked out. We tried a couple times, but he was so squirmy even DH couldn't hold him. So I started to research and talked to the vet, and since the only reason to clip is so they don't scratch the furniture or get caught in things, I decided to let him keep his claws. He doesn't scratch the furniture (much) and doesn't get caught in things, so we're all fine with the arrangement.

We touch her paws when we are playing but it usually ends up with her trying to claw us and that's just not acceptable so we end up redirecting her to a toy. I touch her paws when she is sitting or laying somewhere, but she will still pull them away.
I feel badly, Poor baby. She never uses her claws on any of the others, in fact she was jumping on the table the other day and instead of clawing the table to hold on, she fell off onto the floor. I was panicked thinking she had hurt herself.
She shook it off but I watched her carefully to be sure. I am wondering if she wasn't shown how to use her claws properly or something? I wish I knew what happened to her before she came to us. Then at least I'd have an idea of what I could do to make it easier for her.

Our kittie goes crazy when we try to clip him. We ended up waiting for him to go to sleep and then cut him when he's drowsy shortly after waking up. When we tried during his sleep, he would withdraw his legs...it's kind of funny that way.

Maxx reacts a lot like your cat does. You'd think I was cutting his whole paw off! Do you wrap him up in a towel when clipping? I try to get 2 or 3 claws when he's relaxed and call it good.

I got my cat to tolerate claw clipping by:

a) handling his paws very often: they get stroked, and held, and kissed whenever he cuddles with me or my husband. He used to recoil at having his paws touched, but nowadays understands it is another way that his humans show him love, so he lets us (it's even funnier when he actually reaches up at people with his pads, trying to caress back )

b) cutting nails when he is asleep and curled next to me. I have to go a lot slower and might not cut as much, but he is super relaxed, and (because of a) he does not withdraw his paws even if he comes awake, he just assumes someone is petting his paws

The process took weeks, and it also means that I don't cut nails on my schedule, but on my cat's. Sometimes this means that I have to literally use my laptop screen as a source of light so I can see what I am doing. A pain, but it's worth it not to have a tense kitty squirming and scratching...