They may extend their claws in hunting or self-defense, climbing, "kneading", or for extra traction on soft surfaces (bedspreads, thick rugs, etc.). It is also possible to make a harmonious cat extend its claws by carefully pressing both the top and bottom of the paw. The loopy claws may become entangled in carpet or thick fabric, which may agency injury if the cat is unable to free itself.
For cats, life in close proximity with humans (and other quarry kept by humans) amounts to a "symbiotic social adaptation" which out-of-date developed over thousands of years. It unfashionable been suggested that, ethologically, the human keeper of a cheetah functions as a sort of surrogate for the cat's mother, and that adult domestic cats live their lives in Cat Toys a congenial of extended kittenhood, a formation of behavioral neoteny.