the cat bath 
Have you ever tried to give a cat a bath?? I have. I don't do it any more. Let me explain....
With all the cats I had, I thought they should be bathed like you do a dog. Having been a dog person before, I figured that you could bathe a cat much the same way. Wow, was I ever mistaken. You see, cats have this thing about WATER. They love to drink it, but don't get any on them. The first bath was always done at the vets office. I watched and thought that it didn't look too hard to do. But...remember, vets are trained professionals. They also have assistants to sacrifice. And they have long gloves. Not realizing any of my weak
points on the bathing of cats, I gathered the required shampoo, flea
dip, and towels together to
Next we caught Misty. Having learned from Pepper, we shut the bathroom door as soon as we got her in there. Misty remember is very shy and sort of scared. She trusted me enough to let me put her in the tub. Now time to get wet. I turned on the water and when the first spray hit her tail...she passed out. It was like holding a wet dish cloth. Totally out. I thought Misty had died. But I noticed she was still breathing. Real quick I finished bathing her and gave her to my wife to dry off. After that we put her on the floor where she finally woke up and ran for her life. My confidence in being able
to bathe a cat getting another boost, I picked the next one for the bath.
Critter. Now, Critter is so dumb and curious that he would do anything.
I talked him into the tub and started. Well...Critter didn't like this
much at all. He started screaming and howling like I've never heard before.
You would have though I was killing someone in the house. I had to hold
him tight while my wife shampooed him. Then I dipped him and dried him.
I opened the door and watched him disappear around the corner.
My wife looked at me and asked if we should stop now. I took inventory of my injuries and decided none were in need of stitches and would be ok. Time for the next cat. (I am a gluten for punishment I guess) It took a while to find another cat. They had passed the word about what was going on in the room in the back of the house. Poor Lucky wandered by at that moment. Ahha, Got him. Off to the bath. Well we only thought Lucky was the mild mannered cat that he seemed to be. I saw a completely different side of him in the next few minutes. I don't know who washed who, but I was soaked when I finally let him go. The air would take a little longer to dry his long hair. We had to get more towels now because everything was wet. And while my wife was getting towels I decided some of my newest wounds needed some attention before doing another cat. I decided not to change my clothes yet. Wouldn't be smart to get another set of clothing all bloody anyway. Now, this time the search for
another cat was really hard. But not impossible. Out of the corner of my
eye I saw Midnight run into the laundry room. Trapped! He had no way out
but to come past me, which he found very easy to do. I cornered him in
the back bedroom and got my hands on him. Off to the bathroom.
Actually I found that the cats are
very good at taking care of themselves. If the cat starts to look unkempt
or dirty and maybe even smelly, that's a sign that there is something else
wrong and you should plan a trip to the vet.
I have also learned that the cats
will let me know when they need help. Like when Pepper met the skunk. He
didn't like it either and he sat in the plastic kiddy pool out back and
let me wash him several times to get the stink off. He didn't make a sound
or raise a claw during the whole thing. He didn't like it, but he knew
he needed it. And when they are hurt, they come to me and let me examine
them to see what their problem is. Don't misunderstand...They still do
not like going to the VET. But they do seem to know when they need some
help. Smart things, those cats.
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