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Hey All

If you read my previous blog, you will know that I have a puppy and 3 cats. Bella is my puppy, Frodo is my only girl kitty, and Midnight & Moose Man, are my two male kitties. Today since its a lovely Saturday, I decided everyone needs a bath, mainly because Bella smelled and I figured its been a few months since I last did the cats, might as well make a day of it.

Let me explain that all 3 of the cats are the long haired variety, if you have never had cats or if you have never had long haired cats your probably wondering why that makes a difference. Well it does, mainly because long haired cats get mats in their fur and either you brush your cats every couple of days, or if your cats are anything like mine, you wait until they get bad enough that you cut them out or shave them out.

Rule number one folks, cats do not like electric clippers.
Rule number two, cats do not like scissors.
Rule number three, cats do not like to be held down for any reason.
Rule number four, cats do not like water.

I have this really great garden tub, that because of my busy work schedule, I rarely take baths in as I am always in a hurry and taking a 10 minute shower and going. I have learned that bathing cats that respectively weigh between 13 and 25 pounds is easier done in the tub than in the kitchen sink. So as I drag Frodo into the bathroom, while Bella prances around and barks her head off, I flip the water on and hit the plug on the drain, I grab my super awesome scissors and go to town cutting the mats out of Frodo's arm and leg pits. Sounds easy huh? Its not, Frodo is the smallest of my cats, she is also the meanest and was a feral kitten until I trained her to be a house cat, she was only 7 or 8 weeks when I got her, but she is not near as friendly as my boy kitties. She hissed and attempted to claw me the entire time I cut the whole 3 mats out of her fur and once that was done, realized where she was headed next, the tub......



As her paws hit the water she started to twist & turn and tried to get away, at the same time she was biting & clawing at me (yes she has her claws, every single one of them). I finally get her to settle down & once I started rubbing shampoo into her fur, she was fine, rinsed her off quickly and that was it with Frodo bathtime. I grabbed the towel, dried her off until she was having no more of it and let her run under the bed to lick herself dry. Bella of course chased her like a mad woman barking her head off not realizing that her turn was next.

Bella is my little puppy, she is 12 weeks old today :) and she is a minature long haired dachshund. She is super cute and super sweet, unless she wants to play with the kitties and then she is SUPER ANNOYING, why? Because unlike my sisters dachshund who NEVER barks, Bella ALWAYS barks, but I love her anyways, and amazingly I think my cats do too, why do I think that? Because, they are 3 times bigger than her and there are 3 of them, and I have yet to come home to my cats deciding that Bella was the lunch special of the day.



So anyways, I grab all 6lbs of her up and take her harness off, and plop her into the tub to wash her, she doesn't like the water any better than the cats do, and I am not sure why, but I don't really think she would be a good swimmer. She starts making her baby noises and thrashes around a bit, but it takes me all of 2 minutes to wash & rinse her and get her out of the water, and into the crate she goes while I hunt down Midnight.

Oh, my pretty kitty Midnight, who is my problem child when it comes to bathing him. Midnight is my youngest kitty, only about 2 years old now, and he is all black, super pretty fur, I never have to clip mats out of him, because he just doesnt get them. But Midnight does not like water, and since he weighs in the vicinity of 15+ pound mark, he is a pain in the ass to hold down. I need to do some research on the ratio of size to strength of a domestic house cat. Because when he fights, you can barely hold onto him, and for all my shortness, I am pretty damn strong myself. Needless to say, Midnight, fights will all his might as soon as his paws hit the water, to the point that everytime I give him a bath, I worry about the possibility of hurting him because he fights so much. Anyways, after much splashing and squirming, I finally get the shampoo off of him and go to take him out of the tub, when it happens, he gets away from me, completely soaking wet, scratches the crap out of my arm, lands on my foot claws out and dashes, to the closed door as I contemplate tramatizing him with the hair dryer cause he is being a pain in my ass, but no I just towel dry him and let him go lick his "wounds" under something, time to find Moose.

Moose Man, he is a new addition to my household. He started out as my sisters kitty, for some reason, even though she is not a cat person, she took pity on him and adopted him from one of the local animal rescue groups. He was "abused" in his former life and is declawed, but he is also one of the friendlist kitties out there. He did not get along well with my sisters poodle because he constantly tried to hump Moose agressively, and so my mom took him in. He got along great with my moms kitties, but then my grandmother moved in with my mom (my grandfather died almost 2 years ago, and she couldn't live by herself anymore) and brought her bird to stay as well, so my mom brought the 4 kitties to live in the office and be our office kitties. Long story short, our current landlord is a dickwad and so 3 of moms kitties are back at her house, paying close attention to my grandmothers bird, and Moose told me he would have to eat my grandmothers bird if he moved back there and asked if he could just come and live with me, and so here he is in my house. Everyone is getting along great, Moose is even sleeping on the bed with Bella, so I am pretty sure I am not going to have the same problems that my sister had with him and Coco Puff.

Anyways, Mooseman is super long thick haired and is used to getting clippered & shaved, and of course true to being used to that, he was the best of the bunch, let me wash him, condition him, dry him and went on his way with no fighting, biting, or back paw clawing me, and is ultimately the best when it comes to having to get a bath.