[Porsche-O-Phile]

BTDT! (Three cats). Not easy. Two just don't like it and will run / hide / complain. The third will try to kill me. And hold a grudge. For at least a month. I recommend a leather jacket (sometimes not enough), heavy gloves (welding gloves are a good idea), motorcycle helmet with full face shield and the heaviest pants you own (for me it's motorcycle lowers with integral armor). Leave no exposed skin. Think of what you'd wear if you were going to body dive a fire ant hill "jackass" style. Something like that.

Despite lots of protection my last "interment" of my third cat left me with a 6" long gash on my forearm that took about two weeks to fully heal.

Don't be violent (too easy to hurt the cats) but you do need to be FAST and ASSERTIVE. If you can shield the eyes while you QUICKLY guide the cat into the carrier, bonus. I recommend standing the carrier on end with the door up (lower the cat in bottom end first - the hind legs are the more damaging ones scratch-wise and the risk of them being able to jump clear is outweighed by that IMHO. If you lower (not "drop") the cat in you should be able to close the door and tilt the carrier horizontal easily without incident. Don't slam the door (paws can easily get pinched). Hold firmly but not hard, try to put a little bit of pressure on the scruff of the neck (cats tend to chill a bit reflexively since mama cats pick up the young that way) but don't count on it to fully counteract the natural instinct to tear your eyeballs from their sockets and then disembowel you and eat your spleen.