Is your cat self-cleaning? Mine's not!
By marinarovi
@marinarovi (1318)
Argentina
March 9, 2008 6:50pm CST
Let's stop right here, right now, this long lasting lie about cats being self-cleaning and not needing baths... My cat Olivia, for example, only washes herself after I gave her a bath, so as to remove that ugly smell of clean soap I put on her. So I'm starting to think that she not only hates water but actually likes dirt.
So maybe once a month we go through the bathing torture. (torture for me, that is, my arms look like zebras after she's done with me!)
I also tried dry-cleaning her with foam. But she meows as if I was trying to set her on fire all the same, and it's not as effective as the shampoo is, so I stopped trying.
She doesn't like me to brush her hair either, of course. the only human being that can get less than 3 feet around her with the brush in her hand is my mum. Then Olivia lies on her side, and after a while, turns on the other side for my mum to brush her hair.
Then I found this article online, with precise instructions on how to bathe a cat... it was quite educational, and I wanted to share it with you all.
http://humour.200ok.com.au/cat_bathing.html
Does your cat like water? or is he/she a self-cleaning cat? Have you had terrible experiencies trying to bathe your cat?
4 responses
@sedel1027 (17846)
• Cupertino, California
10 Mar 08
Our cats bath themselves but we also bathe them once a month in some warm water and dawn. Hav eyou tried the cat wipes?
1 person likes this
@marinarovi (1318)
• Argentina
11 Mar 08
What are cat wipes?
We have dry-cleaning foam...
Anyway, I was just kidding about my arms like zebras, she just grabs my arm with both her legs and cries her heart out.
@sedel1027 (17846)
• Cupertino, California
11 Mar 08
I haven't tried the foam. Cat wipes are like large baby wipes made for cats. They have them for dogs as well.
1 person likes this
@marinarovi (1318)
• Argentina
13 Mar 08
Wow, that must be just great!
I don't think we have those here...
But I'll ask my friend in Florida to bring me some when she comes on July...
@Andrej7 (66)
• Slovak Republic
12 Mar 08
Hi marinarovi,
I really enjoyed that expression you used ... "the self-cleaning cat".
I imaginated the situation when somebody comes to the shop and the sales man asks him: Which model of cat would you like ? The self-cleaning or any other cat ? :)
Cats that I can see around my house are self-cleaning ... they love lying on the sunny place and licking themselfs. But these cats I`m writing about are living outside the house ... so maybe they are enough dirty to self-cleaning :) They also don`t like water and deep snow.
Maybe your cat is too lazy or too old. How old Olivia is ?
The cat on your picture is Olivia ? She really looks like a fighter ...
Nice article ... I had lot of fun ... so good luck and next time don`t forget to wear some gloves before washing :)
1 person likes this
@marinarovi (1318)
• Argentina
13 Mar 08
Hi Andrej, thank you for your response.
Yes, that's Olivia there, in a kitchen drawer. She's only 4 years old, so she's definitely more lazy than old to clean herself.
It's also true that she lives indoors so she's not THAT dirty. thank god!
Personally, I believe the only self cleaning thing in the universe is soap (and still... I have my doubts...hahaha)
But the article was fun, and I wanted to share it with all cat-owners, self-cleaning ones and dirty-lazy-I'm-too-cute-anyway ones.
=)
@anne25penn (3305)
• Philippines
10 Mar 08
I have two outdoor cats that are self cleaning and do fine. The only time that I have to wash or shampoo them is when they have ventured under someone's car or truck and they are full of grease. And it is so hard to get the grease off their fur. It took me a week to get it off my cat Spot. But otherwise, they're fine as is.
@marinarovi (1318)
• Argentina
11 Mar 08
well, my cat's indoors, and she sleeps on my bed. So if she's not self-cleaning enough I have to bathe her.
Glad for you that you don't have to go through that!
=)
@anniepa (27955)
• United States
10 Mar 08
Thank goodness for the most part my cats are "self-cleaning"; actually, I've had cats my entire life and they've all been pretty much self-cleaning, so it seems your cat is the exception rather than the rule. I have had some bad experiences trying to bathe a cat when they had either gotten into something they couldn't clean themselves or when they've had skin irritations and it hasn't been a pretty sight! I guess if cat is started out very young being bathed regularly they're OK, but that wasn't the case with any of mine.
Annie
1 person likes this
