Good advice from everyone. I do the same thing with tipping the carrier and putting the cat in ass backwards while scruffing the neck.

As far as the vet visit and clipping nails are concerned, here are a couple of suggestions.

Give kitty a treat before and after clipping the nails. This way he will associate nail clipping as a pleasant experience, knowing he'll get a treat. It worked with my daughter's cat. At the end of the nail clipping session, she immediately went to the cupboard where the treats are kept (and who says cats can't be trained ).

The vet visit is quite an experience for cats. What I do is let the vet tech take the cat in the room, take him/her out of the carrier and do all the handling. This way in my cat's eyes, I'm not the bad guy, the vet tech is.

Great idea to put the carrier out and opened so Calvin can see it's not a "bad thingy". Good luck.