What are claws for?

I ran over to a nearby tree. A very large pine; without so much as a branch stub for twenty feet above the ground. "What the heck do you think you're doing?" Karyn yelled as I extended my claws and looked up the tree. "What leopards do naturally." And I began scrambling up the trunk. In a few seconds I was neatly perched atop three closely spaced branches forty feet up. I figured I could sit or lie in this position for hours. And if I just had something to serve as a mattress even sleep there. "What about school?" Karyn yelled. My ears flattened and I felt my tail lashing the air ... but she was right. So I dug my claws in again to lower myself down the tree. Not nearly so easy as going up. For starters I couldn't see where to put mytoe claws.