On Giving Oscar a Bath

Meow's post with the video on how to bath a cat reminded me of when Oscar was a kitten. (He is going to be so embarrassed that I told you this.)

As you may recall from his photos, he has reasonably long fur and a thick coat. As a kitten, he was a bit of a scaredy cat and any time he was alarmed or frightened, he would lose control of his bowels. He would come inside with a terrible mess all down his hind legs, poor little thing, and only being three months old, he was still learning to groom himself...which meant that I had to take a hand.

I would fill a container with warm water, get towels, shampoo and anything else I needed for this exercise, ready for the ordeal. Then...I would get Oscar. The first time was a breeze. I just went and picked him up. I lowered him into the water. There was an earsplitting yowl and a drenched cat climbing up my torso, accompanied by another earsplitting yowl...this time from me. We struggled, the cat and I. I managed to lower him into the water again and this time was able to get some shampoo on the nether regions. All this time, there were shrieks, yowls and wails, so much so that the neighbour came over to investigate.

Then the vocalising turned into more sinister growls and hisses, the claws were out and the air was blue...from me, not Oscar, although I think he was screaming his fair share of invective. My neighbour stood there holding his sides in absolute hysterical laughter...afterwards, he said he'd never seen anything so funny in all his life. Me, absolutely soaked, with a furious (wet) ball of spitting kitten, who was doing his best to spread shampoo, water and the mess off his legs from floor to ceiling.

I eventually managed to get Oscar clean and wrapped him in a warm towel. By this time, he was totally uncontrollable and no amount of petting and stroking would calm him down. I let him go and he shot into the bedroom and under my bed. I left him to settle down and went and abused my neighbour for the lack of assistance. He was still doubled up with laughter, the tears pouring down his cheeks. He reckoned he hadn't seen anything so funny before. I become rather disgruntled with all this and snapped at him, that the next time Oscar came home covered in s**t, he, my neighbour, could have a go at getting him clean.

Unfortunately, I had to bath Oscar about another four or five times and each time was a traumatic as the first. Poor Oscar would sleep for hours afterwards, absolutely exhausted from fighting me. Fortunately, we don't have that problem now. He is six years old and nothing seems to frighten him...in fact, I think he is the one that is threatening to any stranger that encroaches on his turf.

I would hate to have to bath him now, he's bigger, heavier and stroppier. When he had to be shaved at the vet's, they sedated him. I was glad about that though, because that was really traumatic for him. I only washed him, I didn't shave all his fur off and leave him naked to the world.

Anyone else with stories about bathing a cat?