Just to clarify (e.g., for fans of RFK Jr.): The shot is harmless, the illness is awful, terminal.

Rabies? There is a lot of FUD around. I had to get PEP rabies shots around 40 years ago. Just a number of IM injections (upper arm) in increasing intervals, would consider it "mostly harmless"...

I guess the most traumatic experience for my cats has always been being locked into the crate while driving to the vet, not the treatment itself. All of them always hated it and constantly tried to somehow extricate under loud protest.

A crate where you can open the top to thread her in helps a lot in my experience.