June 19, 2008

Newsflash: Cats Don't Like Showers.

Yeah, well, it's news to me. I've always had dogs and, if you have dogs, you've most likely had occasion to take a shower and bathe your dog at the same time. Well, today I decided to do the same with kitty.
This morning I got up to find our Persian (long hair!!!) kitten running around with a jelly-bean sized dingleberry tangled in her fur and even though I got a napkin and pulled it off, she still stunk. So, despite my husband's insistance that "cats clean themselves", I felt that our kitty needed some shampoo to help take that nasty cat-poop smell off her butt. I didn't think hosing her down outside was a good choice since she only weighs about 2 pounds and it's kinda cold and the sink was out of the question because that's just nasty. The shower seemed like a good choice and I'd just gotten back from Pilates and needed one myself. I grabbed up the kitty on my way into the shower, plopped her on the floor and started the water. I just figured all the yowling she was doing was due to cats not liking water although, from the street outside, I'll bet it sounded like someone was yelling, "Help!" over and over. She didn't need any help. I picked her up and put her under the stream of water and she started to struggle, but didn't really claw me, then I put the shampoo on her and started to lather her up. I think the shampoo was her limit - she lost it. It's a credit to my pain tolerence that I didn't drop her...or throw her out of the shower. Kitty went bonkers and started to shred my hands and wrists and, since I was naked, I had to finish the shampoo and rinse holding her at arm's length. Luckily India walked in and I was able to hand the still pissed off kitty to her for drying. I don't think I'll be doing that again. As it is, the kitty won't look at me now and at some point over the next couple of days I may have to explain that the slices on my wrists are not due to a botched suicide attempt. Stupid cat. Next time she can clean off her own dingleberries.