I’ve got two and they only get washed if they’ve gotten themselves into something nasty. Since they’re both very much indoor cats, they rarely need washing. I don’t think I’ve bathed them more than twice.
Plunkette will fight until he’s soaking wet, then he’ll settle down to growling. It takes two fully covered humans to bathe Camry. He’s a fighter.
I’ve only had to wash a cat one time and she sure as hell didn’t like it.
Kitty was an outdoor cat and was LOADED with fleas. I washed her with Head and Shoulders and believe it or not she was grateful! Kept her indoors after that. 
My cats get bathed about once a month. They handle it well, because they started in kittenhood.
They are bathed in the bathtub, in about 4" of warm water, at least as warm as I would bathe myself, since their normal body temp is slightly higher than human, so they could chill if its too cold. They actually seem to like it… however they hate the towel.
Mine are indoor cats and they do all the washing of themselves that’s necessary, thankyouverymuch.
I did have to rinse a cat once. Sophie has a thing for water – wants to drink from a dripping faucet, likes to get in the shower right after I’ve used it, sometimes drinks from the water dish with one front paw in it.
Anyway, one day I was washing dishes in the kitchen sink and had to leave the room for a few minutes. When I returned I found Sophie happily settled in the sink, in her best library lion position, the soapy water halfway up her sides and her long black fur floating around her.
After I stopped laughing I plucked her out and hauled her off to the bathroom to rinse the suds out. She was outraged – I suspect mostly because the water was COLD DAMMIT – and writhed and yowped, but didn’t try to shred me. I rubbed her as dry as I could with towels before releasing her and she stalked off to restore her rumpled dignity.
I do it every few months. In the sink under warm water, with regular human shampoo (careful of the eyes!). She hates it, but tolerates it. However, she will NOT tolerate the towel.
My last kitty enjoyed baths. The freak.
But prior kitties were blindfolded. Which may or may not have helped.
I strongly suggest Petco or similar grooming facility. Shouldn’t be more than $30, and well worth it. They have special kitty bathing apparatus and a lot of experience. Also, they will clean the anal glands, a service which fascinates and terrifies me. Plus, no scratches for you!
I do it every month or so. If I don’t, they get a funny kitty-littery smell to them. Kind of dusty. Ick.
Neither of them like it very much. I fill the tub with warm water, chase one of them around the house, pick them up and dunk them in. I make sure the water is high enough to come up to their chin. I have to for Sebastian, because her hair is so thick, but short, so it’s like velvet - and almost friggin waterproof. So she gets the longest bath, unfortunately for her. It takes a lot of underwater rubbing to get her fully wet. Then comes the shampoo, which I usually take her out of the tub for, set her on a towel, lather her up with baby shampoo, then put her back in the tub for rinsing. I have a big novelty cup nearby especially for cat rinsing. I could use the tap, but I worry about the temperature changing while I’m struggling with a 12 pound cat. Sebastian is very muscular, and often puts in some heavy duty heaving and ho-ing, but I can manage her. She usually meows like it’s the end of the world. Then she gets towel-dried when I certain she’s thoroughly rinsed. Then it’s Kero’s turn.
Same method, pick up cat, dunk in tub. She is much smaller and more dainty than her tigress of a sister, but she’s a nipper. She won’t bite to hurt, but she will, if you expose a weak spot, give you a quick nip to let you know she is not pleased. She also howls like the world is ending. What a set of lungs on that cat. It is much easier to wet her, lather, and rinse her, since her hair is much finer than Sebastian’s. I usually take special care of her skin, adding a soothing oil (something from the vet) after the bath, since she has some allergies that act up sometimes and causes her skin to break out. Then she gets towel-dried and sent to join her sister in sulking.
I make sure the room is warm enough for them, and keep an eye on them to make sure they don’t start shivering, and they lick themselves for a few hours until they are completely dry. Then their fur is ever so soft to touch, and they have a pleasant, soft scent, and you can tell they feel good about it, because they suddenly become very cuddly and affectionate, purring and begging to be petted and held. For Kero, that’s nothing too new, because she’s very lovable normally, but for Sebastian it is completely out of character, because she’s pretty anti-touchyfeely. She loves you to play with her, but don’t you dare pick her up, touch her, or pet her if she didn’t ask you to! Lord love a duck she hates that. But she will roll around, purring like a fool, rubbing her face on every possible object… if nothing is handy, she’ll drag herself across the floor on her cheek.
So they are happy with the outcome… they just hate everything up to being dry again.
gigle snort
Must… Keep…From making… Obvious sophomoric joke…
A enclosed shower with a Pollenix removeable showerhead. 
She’s a Persian and I used to wash her myself every day, but I kept getting hairballs. So I just let her do it herself and then take her to a groomer every couple of months.
An enclosed shower works nicely. My ex would wash the cats every few months; she’d strip down (it’s silly to wear clothes in the shower) and bring the cat in with her before cranking up the water. We had one of those showerheads that’s on a long hose, so it could be pointed away from the cats when necessary. Since the shower was totally enclosed, there was no need to restrain the cat, thus no biting or clawing. Worked great, but care had to be taken not to spray water in the cat’s face.
And all the cats feared the towel. Not sure why.
Two of my cats I can bathe myself…they hate it, but they won’t fight as long as I hold their front paws off the ground (hold them up by their “armpits”, back paws on floor), they just growl or meow pitifully.
My momma cat, on the other hand? Screw that. Paying a groomer is a hell of alot cheaper then paying for stitches in the emergency room. I am not exaggerating in the least.
The last time I even attempted it was when she got out, and got fleas. I had a deathgrip on the scruff of her neck with one hand, had her front paws clasped in the other hand, while my sweetie tried to bathe her, and she still drew major blood with the back paws. Gave up with her still fully foamed, took her right over to PetSmart, handed the carrier over and said “you deal with this, I’m done”.
When I was a kid, we had two cats, and they detested baths. We had a tub/shower with sliding glass doors, and the cats would get some baby shampoo quickly rubbed into their fur, then stuffed into the tub, the shower turned on, and the door slid closed before they could escape. We’d reach in over top of the door to adjust the shower head angle if they seemed to be avoiding the spray. Meanwhile, one cat would be letting out horrible-sounding meows from deep in the throat, seeming like we were strangling her and thus muffling the actual meow, yet they were louder than any sound we’ve ever heard her make. (NB: She’d make this sound even if we were gently holding her in the tub while water gently ran in around her toes. She was just a big baby about water.) A bystander would swear the cat was in intense pain and about to have a heart attack. While doing this, she’d otherwise seem to be placid, as she wasn’t running around or anything - it was the other cat who was scrambling at the doors in an attempt to open them.
giggle
Could you type that again?
Only this time type it very,… S-L-O-W-L-Y
Alright that’s it I’m outa here…
/needs to grow up.
The last time I had to bathe any of my herd was before Advantage, so it’s been a while. It was a 2 person job and took the better part of the afternoon.
Step 1: get all cats in bathroom. This was generally hubby’s job while I armored myself for action - long sweatpants and longsleeved shirt. I would then try to get into the bathroom without letting any of the cats out - and they knew what was up.
Step 2: clutching very thick towel, adjust the temp of the water to just slightly too warm for me and take removable shower head from wall; climb into tub and seat as comfortably as possible with towel on lap and shampoo within reach.
Step 3: accomplice hands cats in one at a time, closing glass shower door after adding cat. It was my experience that having me in there with them and the thick towel to sink the claws into made them feel a little more secure. Throughly wet cat, work in shampoo and hand off to accomplice, receive next cat. By the time all cats were lathered, enough time had passed to…
Step 4: In order lathered, cats are handed back in to shower enclosure for very through rinsing, then handed out to accomplice to be wrapped in a towel. After all cats are rinsed. open bathroom door and watch cats disappear for the rest of the day.
On a side note, I frequently had to bathe kittens that I was bottle raising. I love them but I’m not about to do it the way their mother would. As infants, they were not afraid of water at all. I would put about 2 inches of very warm water in the sink and they would paddle away with no problem at all.
We started bathing our cats when they were little kittens, and they’ve gotten used to it. I read somewhere that you shouldn’t put water directly in the bath, or use a sprayer, because the cats will see the water and get scared. So we fill a bucket with nicely warm water and put it in the tub with plenty of soft cloths in it. Then we go and get a cat and close the door. It usually takes two of us, one to hold (gently) and one to soap and rinse.
We kneel down at the side of the tub, and put the cat in. At this time their face changes from mild suspicion to wide-eyed anxiety. Then one of us will hold them, or just keep close to them, while the other will get the cloths out of the water and get the cat wet. They usually like this part (perhaps “like” is too strong a word) because the water is warm.
Once they are thoroughly drenched, we will both get our hands soapy with special pet shampoo and give the now-resigned cat a massage. They usually like this too, because we are both paying a lot of attention to them and telling them how pretty they will look and smell once the litter smell is gone.
Then, back to the cloths in the bucket for a thorough rinse. By this time the cats will have had enough, and they will feebly try to climb the sides of the tub. This is the only time that the person with the restraining duties will actually have to hold the wet cat. We’ve never been scratched while bathing them because we’re very gentle.
After the soap is all gone, one of us will hold the dripping wet cat and the other will use a towel to try and blot off most of the water. The cat will be giving us these “Why did you do this to me??” reproachful looks. Then they are set free, and usually run to a nice sunny spot, or under a desk lamp, to keep warm.
Then we go get the other cat.
Tips: wear a shirt that you don’t mind getting wet cat fur all over. Keep all necessary items close to hand – you don’t want to be running for shampoo in the middle of the procedure. Start your cats out young. Give them tons of loving before and after. Try to set up a warm spot where they can dry out (they usually won’t use it, and will run away if you put them there, but on the off chance…). Also: they are going to be grooming themselves quite a bit afterwards and will ingest a lot of loose hair. Put a hairball treatment in their food before and after the bath! You will thank me.
1.) One time, Pepper Mill was scraping the walls and ceiling in the bathroom. Midnight snuck in and was covered with fiberglass and plaster dust, which Pepper did not want her licking off. She quickly stripped, closed the bathroom door, and showered herself off. Then, grabbing a lot of lather in one hand, she scooped up Midnight in the other, lathered her up, washed her off, and threw her out into the hall, all before Midnight knew what was going on.
I should add that none of our cats are declawed. Pepper’s got guts.
2.) Since Midnight’s tail doesn’t work (paralyzed), she sometimes gets …stuff caught between her tail and her body. I used to andle this by putting two towels down in the tub (one for me to kneel on, stripping to my underwear, putting midnight on the other, and using the extension shower head to rinse her down, lather her up, then rinse her off. She doesn’t much like it, but I make soothing noises, use warm water, and sometimes put catnip on the towel, all the while holding her down (and her tail yp) with one hand while washing with the other.
3.) Our latest method is the least nerve-wracking, and doesn’t require us to strip. We use baby wipes or wet-naps to clean Midnight off. Seems to work pretty well.
When I was a child, we had a white outdoor cat. When he got so disgusting I couldn’t take it, I tried washing him in the tub, holding down with one hand and washing with the other. It worked pretty well until I decided to follow the directions on the shampoo bottle and “repeat.” Whereupon the cat decided to clamp down on my washing hand. Hard. He drove his teeth all the way into me.
I had to dunk him under water and smack his nose to get him to let go. The bath was over, and I still have puncture scars from the incident.
Only when new cats came into the house and brought fleas, since mine are all indoor cats. it is an exciting adventure, and with the new home having an enclosed shower, i’ll remember that tip. I kind of like the thought of standing over the wall, spraying down into the wet cat pit…
That noise they make from deep down in their throat when they’re being bathed? I believe that is actually the voice of the devil. He channels through bathing cats.