Perverts!
I am a guy anyway, but my Blue Persian has become so furry that it needs to have a good shave. It is summer here and the temperature is over 90 degrees in your currency most days.
It will be far more comfortable for hime but he looks a real wreck when he comes out- like a miniature lion.
I have the same problem with my pussy! He’s the furriest critter I’ve ever seen in my life (a Himalayan) - his fur wads up into hard clumps at the end of every winter no matter how hard we try to keep up with it. When I take him to the vet in April for his yearly checkup and flea meds (in case we take him out in the yard), the vet takes him in the back room and returns him (for a fee, of course), with the worst of the clumps removed. Then he sheds and sheds and we brush and brush, and in the summer he’s a light colored slim creature who looks like an ordinary cat, until fall, when the furbearing process begins all over again. I don’t know if this is a characteristic of all Persians or just Himalayans. We plan every year to get Marco a nice buzz cut, but since he loses his winter coat we let it go… I think it’s a kindness to take your cat for a nice lion cut, I hope you post a picture so we can all point and laugh!
The easiest, safest way to remove matted pet hair is with this kind of letter opener. The razor is safely shielded from accidentally cutting your pet. Just hook the tine behind the base of the matted hair and zip! it’s gone.
Thanks, Fear Itself! I’ve been meaning to de-ball my cat for months. (Furball, that is.)
There’s more than one way to crush kill destroy a cat.
Trouble is my cat is quite large- around 16 lbs and he doen’t like being shaved. So the vet has to tranquilise him and this needs to be done twice a year. The cost is significant- hey, I choose to keep the cat so I am prepared to pay the costs- but I don’t know how often he can keep going under.
That being said he does look really funny when clipped. This big sour looking cat , larger than a poodle, with a girlie hair cut.
Go ahead, make your “double entendres”.
I’m gonna masturbate all the same.
So there!
I just had my pussy shaved last week. And it sounds like my pussy might even be bigger than yours. I bet he’s 20 lbs., easy. I take him to a groomer. He doesn’t have to be sedated (the cat, not the groomer), but he sure as hell doesn’t like it. Maybe one of our vet Dopers can expound on upon which presents the greater stress – sedation or freaking out.
I don’t know the provenance of my pussy. He was a stray. From what I’ve read, I’ve decided he is a Norwegian Forest Cat mix. (What the hell do I know? I just like the sound of that better than Maine Coon.) At any rate, the groomer told me she has never encountered a cat with a coat as thick as his.
So, yeah, he looks pretty funny right now. But a shaved pussy is so velvety-smooth and feels so nice to the touch. And I’m sure he’s a lot more comfortable without the mats.
Thanks, Fear Itself! I too have cats that have matted fur. You are a genious! Thank you for the tip.
The thread title reminded me of Mrs. Slocombe on Are You Being Served?
There’s one thing worse than dealing with a long-haired cat with matted fur: dealing with a long-haired cat with diarrhea and clumping cat litter.
I have to shave my cat twice a year and I absolutely hate doing it. I take him to woman who grooms cats and dogs for a living from her apartment. It costs me $60 per haircut, which I believe is less than everywhere else.
The woman is intolerable and insane. Since my cat is also insane, I have to hold him down for her. During the haircut she’ll criticize the way I’m holding the cat every 5 minutes – mostly because of hyped up safety concerns. She’ll also throw in complaints about the condition of my cat’s fur. All this while she has the television turned on to Russian programing.
I imagine that I somehow stumbled across one of the CIA’s enhance interrogation techniques. She probably has Khalid Shaikh Mohammed coming in next Tuesday.
I do it all for my cat. He looks really cool as a miniature lion.
I cannot believe you guys are shaving your poor pussies!
I have shorthairs now but I once had a magnificent Maine coon cat, who weighed over 20 pounds, much of which was fur. And for most of her life, I lived in a place where it got very hot.
I did not shave her. I did take her to a groomer once a year to get rid of the hairballs. She loved being brushed (and vacuumed, too!) but did not like being brushed where there were tangles, which was under her arms. Er, legs. And tummy.
So off to the groomer she went in the spring, and came back lighter, and happier, but not shaved. She handled the heat quite well, as most furry animals do if you give them enough water and they can get to shade.
My bunny got shaved this year. He is not really long haired but it is amazingly dense (and very much like wool about 17 microns for those in the know). He does not normally cope with the heat so just as an experiment I asked a hairdressing friend (who clips her dog) to give him a clip - He loved it - licked us both the whole time but not hugely effective (due to the densness of the fur and fear of hurting him - bunnies have very delicate skin). I have since given him a more effective haircut using a pair of tiny little hand shears (just like the ones they used on sheep only very tiny and cute). He hasn’t once shown signs of heat stress this summer, he hasn’t gone off his tucker and is remarkably active - he does look a bit funny but it has been worth it.
When I saw the thread title and author, there was a sickening moment when I confused Cicero with Cesario.
Gotta go scrub my brain now.
Lakai- your post gave me a great laugh.
HNS- for the reasons put forward by MoodIndigo, shaving is necessary. It gets very hot here, and with the long hair his backside can become messy.
This cat is also a stray- like Feckafree’s cat. I held him once when he had his bum shaved and that convinced me he would not be easy to hold without sedation when he was being shaved all over. He really is a gentle cat- a terrible hunter- but the heat knocks him about and whilst he looks fierce he is a big baby.
I really feel for the poor thing when he was living rough. I can’t understand people abandoning pets.
We used to have a cat with medium long hair. It was fairly thick, but not as thick as a Persian’s/Himalayan’s, nor as long. Still, she seemed to be far more comfortable if she got her yearly summer haircut around June or so. She seemed to be embarrassed by her nekkidness for a couple of days, and then she’d realize that she was comfortable, and so she went about her business, which consisted of killing snakes, chasing hummingbirds, and terrorizing the local German Shepherds.
And yes, she was named Fluffy.
Thank you for my Monday morning “snort coffee out the nose laughing” moment.
Pictures, dammit, we need pictures! This is a Dope thread about cats. Don’t you all know the rules by now?
We have a shorthair cat who’s never needed shaving, thank God.
I use the Furminatorto get rid of excess hair. The first time I used it there was so much hair it looked like a 2nd cat. I would use this as a frequent grooming tool instead of waiting for it to mat up.
FYI, it’s not cheap.
My long haired cat is my only cat that hates being brushed. I can sometimes sneak up on her and get a few brushes in before she runs away but if she has matts that won’t work. I finally took her into work and sedated her and gave her a lion cut and sanitary clip (a closer clip around the booty/hooha area). I used to just do the sanitary clip but she had several matts so that was only about the second time I’ve done a whole body clip. She likes to sit on my lap so the sanitary clip is very necessary.