Just a friendly little cat
My pussycat was rocking in the rocking chair
Rocked so hard she lost her hair, poor pussy
This has been a freaky spring and summer -- everything has been running late. Lilacs normally bloom in late March or early April, yet we didn't have lilacs in flower until late June fer pete's sake. And here it is late July, and the cottonwoods are still spooging all over the place. We don't have the "snowdrifts" of seeds piling up in the gutters anymore, but I still drive through flurries of them gusting through the air over the streets on a regular basis, and every day when I go out to my car, it has a fresh new dusting of pollen on it.
Whatever has been going on, it affected my poor kitty, too. She's been shedding regularly for many weeks now, but she never threw her winter coat, especially the undercoat. And the fur of her undercoat, besides being super thick, is of that downy-fine fur that is so soft it's almost sticky, and it clings to anything and everything. She'd be pulling out big clumps of fur, and instead of spitting them out she'd swallow them, resulting in Hairballs Of Doom when she finally yarped them up. But there would be several days where she wouldn't eat anything beforehand, resulting in a listless, hungry, cranky kitty. And no matter how often I brushed her, it didn't help.
So, once again I gave up.
I have my own set of clippers now that I bought two years ago after the last time I shaved her, and I have a fresh set of kitty tranks (the kind you give to cats before you take them on long car trips), so I got her stoned and then set out to denude her of her fur.
It went a lot better this time, mainly because she was so drugged out she was practically a noodle... but she still put up a fight anyway. But I was able to stretch her skin out properly, especially on her stomach, so I could get the fur more-or-less evenly trimmed instead of ending up with blotchy patches of fur-alternating-with-skin that we had last time. But her undercoat was sooo very thick that I dang near burned out the clippers! Seriously, I had to take several breather periods to let them cool down, they were almost too hot for me to hold.
But Sofia is immensely happier now that it's done. Sure, it took her a couple of days to get used to the change (and to recover from the TRAUMA -- O Noez! -- of the whole experience)), but whereas before she hid almost the entire day and night in her Cool Spot under the computer desk, venturing out only infrequently to eat, drink, and use the litter box, now she's out and about all the time -- sitting on my lap, sleeping on my bed, begging for attention, being goofy, etc.
Here she is, lounging on my bed this morning:
Well, I always wanted a Devon Rex cat... I just look at her as my "do it yourself" Rex kitty. (heh) ((Incidentally, that's probably the best shot I've taken so far of her eyes -- you can really see the two different colors of them in this picture.))
I do have to say, Sofia was properly appreciative of all the effort I went to on her behalf. She was so happy during the shaving process that, even stoned out of her head as she was, she gave me a token of her Extreme Thankfulness And Appreciation:
Such a friendly little cat! *g*
Rocked so hard she lost her hair, poor pussy
This has been a freaky spring and summer -- everything has been running late. Lilacs normally bloom in late March or early April, yet we didn't have lilacs in flower until late June fer pete's sake. And here it is late July, and the cottonwoods are still spooging all over the place. We don't have the "snowdrifts" of seeds piling up in the gutters anymore, but I still drive through flurries of them gusting through the air over the streets on a regular basis, and every day when I go out to my car, it has a fresh new dusting of pollen on it.
Whatever has been going on, it affected my poor kitty, too. She's been shedding regularly for many weeks now, but she never threw her winter coat, especially the undercoat. And the fur of her undercoat, besides being super thick, is of that downy-fine fur that is so soft it's almost sticky, and it clings to anything and everything. She'd be pulling out big clumps of fur, and instead of spitting them out she'd swallow them, resulting in Hairballs Of Doom when she finally yarped them up. But there would be several days where she wouldn't eat anything beforehand, resulting in a listless, hungry, cranky kitty. And no matter how often I brushed her, it didn't help.
So, once again I gave up.
I have my own set of clippers now that I bought two years ago after the last time I shaved her, and I have a fresh set of kitty tranks (the kind you give to cats before you take them on long car trips), so I got her stoned and then set out to denude her of her fur.
It went a lot better this time, mainly because she was so drugged out she was practically a noodle... but she still put up a fight anyway. But I was able to stretch her skin out properly, especially on her stomach, so I could get the fur more-or-less evenly trimmed instead of ending up with blotchy patches of fur-alternating-with-skin that we had last time. But her undercoat was sooo very thick that I dang near burned out the clippers! Seriously, I had to take several breather periods to let them cool down, they were almost too hot for me to hold.
But Sofia is immensely happier now that it's done. Sure, it took her a couple of days to get used to the change (and to recover from the TRAUMA -- O Noez! -- of the whole experience)), but whereas before she hid almost the entire day and night in her Cool Spot under the computer desk, venturing out only infrequently to eat, drink, and use the litter box, now she's out and about all the time -- sitting on my lap, sleeping on my bed, begging for attention, being goofy, etc.
Here she is, lounging on my bed this morning:
Well, I always wanted a Devon Rex cat... I just look at her as my "do it yourself" Rex kitty. (heh) ((Incidentally, that's probably the best shot I've taken so far of her eyes -- you can really see the two different colors of them in this picture.))
I do have to say, Sofia was properly appreciative of all the effort I went to on her behalf. She was so happy during the shaving process that, even stoned out of her head as she was, she gave me a token of her Extreme Thankfulness And Appreciation:
Such a friendly little cat! *g*