This is why I shouldn't be allowed to have nice things

[trinityvixen]

My Oscar.

Isn't he just the cutest? I love him to pieces, really. There's only the one thing wrong with him: his fur is long and he hates to let me brush it. So when it gets desperately snarled, I have to just cut chunks out. Previously, I have gone at him with scissors and cut everything away. I didn't want to repeat that mistake, so I bought a proper trimmer this time and decided to buzz him as best I could.

The results are less than encouraging....





The good news is that I've learned how to use the trimmer's attachments to the point where I can in the future avoid shaving him all the way down to a fuzz. I know his tail doesn't look GREAT, but it at least still has some hair on it. Next time, it will be just a trim and not a complete shaving. Hard to believe that this is better than my previous attempt. I don't have pictures, but trust me: IT IS. Scary, no?

Point is, I've never had a long-haired cat, so I'm still trying to adjust to how to deal with him looking bedraggled versus looking like the victim of a lawnmower. If he'd sit still for a brushing, I could get by on that, and believe me, I've tried every last hair brush for pets on the market. (Including the slightly ridiculously expensive Furminator, which works wonders as far as getting loose hair out but for which Oscar will no more sit still than he would any other brush.) But he won't, and he looks and feels less than adorable when his hair is constantly in clumps. It just isn't nice to pet him when he feels mangy. It sounds ridiculous to say, against the above evidence, that I did all that out of a desire for a more aesthetically pleasing cat, but that IS why I (and we--feiran helped) did it. This will also help as the weather gets warmer, since that was a lot of fur. (Oscar looks huge, but he's easily got an extra 4" of hair all the around his body. Without it, he's positively trim.) And it will help cut down on hairballs, of which he gets a lot due to long hairs being constantly swallowed. (Seriously, he had another cat's worth of hair on him that we cut off, and he licked that every day.)

The hair trimmer actually works very well and does not, even in my hands, hurt him at all. (I cut him a little bit with a scissor I used to cut down his hair to manageable length. We're even, though, because I sliced open my thumb in the process!) With some more practice (um, once his hair grows back), I'll be able to keep him either regularly or semi-annually trimmed down as the need demands without sacrificing his dignity or either of our hides. The trimmer came with little combing blades that keep the hair a set distance away from the blades; I used it on his tail with a surprising amount of success. (For all that the base of his tail is uneven, his tail hair is actually very uniform.) It will take time to get this right, but I think I'm on the right track, evidence of my eyes notwithstanding.

Comments

[mithras03.livejournal.com]

Did you use that thing that attaches to a vacuum cleaner?

[trinityvixen.livejournal.com]

You mean a flowbee? (http://www.flowbee.com/) Nah, just regular clipper and some scissors for the sensitive areas. If I could go over his fur some more with the clipper, I could sheer all the bumps down more evenly, but Kitty Has Suffered Enough as far as he's concerned. And there's no need. I did this to cut down on hairballs, save him from sweltering this summer, and to get rid of the tangled mess. I've succeeded. If I do any more trimming it will be a truly traumatic session where I go after the underbelly some more.

[mithras03.livejournal.com]

AHAHA - not the flowbee! That's so old-school. They have a new one just for pets! In the commercial they show all these dogs and cats sitting patiently while the owners "painlessly" groom them. :-P

[mithras03.livejournal.com]

Here it is! The PetBuddy http://www.1seenontvstore.com/pet-buddy.html

[trinityvixen.livejournal.com]

I refuse to order anything through a site that advertises ShamWow. I think you know why.

[mithras03.livejournal.com]

I'm guessing it has to do with the dude's arrest. But there was a guy in the Jersey City Mall advertising ShamWows. He had a whole table and everything. :-P

[trinityvixen.livejournal.com]

I was kidding, but no, I don't generally buy things from the As Seen on TV anybody.

[mithras03.livejournal.com]

I was watching Bill Maher (annoying, yes I know, but sometimes he's good for a chuckle) one week, and his opening was a fake ad for a combination ShamWow and Snuggie - called the SnugWow. Basically, it was designed so you'd never have to get off your ass in front of the tv. It would absorb all spills, and you wouldn't even have to get up if you had to pee. :-P

[trinityvixen.livejournal.com]

Sounds like those underwear that the Japanese astronaut is testing out right now...

[trinityvixen.livejournal.com]

The razor didn't pain him much, it just freaked him out. If his reaction to my hair dryer is any indication, I won't be vacuuming him any time soon.