What product are you giving your cat?  In the US, some good brands are
Revolution, Advantage, and Frontline.  These are applied to the back of
the cat's neck (or even on top of the head).  There are some grocery-store
brands to be strictly avoided (Hartz comes to mind).

A trick you may or may not want to try is what I do for my herd of
skittish house ferals, who are horrified at any prolonged hands-on
experience.  Saves money, too.

We buy the big-dog version of our favorite dab-on insecticide (Revolution
is our drug of choice, because it controls more than mere fleas).  The
formula is exactly the same as for cats (or kittens, for that matter), but
the quantity is much greater and the price per ounce greatly reduced when
buying "in quantity."

Using a 1-cc syringe, I remove a cat-sized dose from the doggie-size
container. (I don't have that dosage on me, but if you are interested,
contact me at the Campus Cats address.)  I then re-sheathe the needle and
remove the syringe from the needle.  It is quite safe, actually.

I have found that even our fraidycats don't even seem to notice when I
slip the (needleless) syringe between their shoulder blades and squirt the
dose right onto their skin.  As a matter of fact, the delivery is much
cleaner and faster than using the applicator that comes with the product;
it is not necessary to fuss about parting the fur to expose the skin.

Sharon Talbert
Friends of Campus Cats
www.campuscats.org
sharon@campuscats.org