A Little Game I Like To Call....SHAVE THE CAT!!!

Have you ever shaved a cat? I mean a real, live, unmedicated feline? Well, I have!! And, it's not all it's cracked up to be. What I really mean is that it's not really as exciting as one might think.

You see, we have this cat, okay we have four cats (two are babies, so cute!!) but anyway, this one cat, he's the daddy cat. His name is Jacket and he is black and white. Jacket is a long haired, rag doll cat, which means he's really floppy when you pick him up. He's also a mess!!!! Since we live on a fairly large lot, he takes advantage of it. He reigns as far as he's concerned, at least when Rocky (the raccoon) isn't visiting. Jacket runs through the fields, he rolls in the grass, he climbs tall trees and eats june bugs. I am very grateful for the june bug eating. Now if only I can train him to get the crickets..... Oh, okay, back to shaving the cat. Jacket needs his tick and flea medicine put on his back, but he's got a TON of hair. He's shedding right now, so he's getting these little matted balls of loose hair and burs. It's just gross. And he looks awful. So I get this idea....let's shave him!! Not like bald, but really close, so we can see if he has any ticks, get them off, get his tube of tick and flea stuff on. I have my hubby's pair of electric head shavers, problem solved right?! Wrong. My husband will just die when he reads this (sorry Honey!).

So we trap the poor, not so defenseless cat and prepare for the worst. I figured there would be a lot of hissing and kicking and scratching going on. I was prepared to snatch him by the nape of the neck and go to town. With a 1/2" guard on the shavers I turn it on. Nothing happens. Crap, they are broke. Just a bit of noise, no movement. I run back inside, grab the oil and head back out to the 'scene.' Of course I'm doing this outside, this cat is very hairy! Pop off the oil bottle cap and tada...no oil. Dry as a bone. Great. My best friend happens to be on the phone with me and tells me that when she ran out, she used vegetable oil. I have some of that!! What do ya know, as soon as the oil meet the blades they zinged to life! Now, back to the cat.

As I start to put the shavers on Jacket, he wiggles, but does not freak out like I expected. The shavers however, are terrified of this mess and experience performance anxiety. I raked the shavers over the fur and it would grab some. My son would grab if off and I would do another rake. My son said it was like 'mowing the cat.' Indeed it was, but it was like the mower was on the highest setting and only giving the 'yard' a trim, or a thinning. Jacket seemed to think that he was getting groomed with a vibrating brush. For the most part, he lay back and let me thin out his mangy mop.

After about 20 to 30 minutes of not really shaving the cat, my back was killing me. So we decided to go for the tail and call it a day. Jacket was not about to stand for this vibrating brush thing to go after his tail. So when he donned his claws and hissed at us both, we honored his wishes and let him go. Having been 'injured' (sliced my mad cat claw) by a cat about 10 years ago during a 'bath' fiasco, I give up easy! The shavers cleaned up nicely and appear to have never touched the cat. So if my husband doesn't read this blog, and none of my children tattle, he will never know. Yeah, like that will happen!

Far from bald, or even spikey haired, he looks good! No more mats, save his tail and no more burs. He doesn't even look like he was shaved. He just looks like he was given a nice brushing. I don't think the story would be the same if we were trying to shave a cat that wasn't used to being tortured by toddlers. So if you choose to shave your cat, well, good luck.