Something on the bottom of my cats paw, fur stuck togeather

My cat zorro walked through something with his back paws, the fur is all stuck together with a black tar like substance, about the size of the top of a thumbtack on both rear paws, near the large main pad.

Dilemma is, he hates has rear paws being touched, due to some abrasion injuries when he was a kitten(healed now). I mean HATES his rear paws being touched.

So im after some kind if liquid i can put in a dropper and put a few drops on the gunk and hopefully it will break up.

It goes without saying that it has to be safe for the cat to ingest, so maybe something natural? Can anyone suggest something?

Or should i just carefully try and cut the fur with the gunk in it away?

I don't know of anything safe to suggest. Anything that's strong enough to dissolve the gunk is probably not safe to ingest. I would try to carefully cut it out if you can.

Vegetable oil or canola oil works well for some gunk, like tar and silicone (on humans, too).