Trimming the Cat

Once more, it’s the time of year where Psycho Cat goes to the vet to get all his tangled matted fur cut out/shaved/dealt with. We’ve worked out that it’s actually all his winter fur coming out, but rather than falling out it gets tangled in the new fur, and just leads to him looking utterly manky.

Apparently it’s a fairly common issue with long-haired cats, although our case is a bit extreme because he’s a mucky little git and doesn’t clean himself properly. (Something I’ve never seen with any other cat, and due (I suspect) to being separated from his mum too early, before he learned about proper grooming, although that’s something we’ll never know for sure due to Herself only getting him when he was “about” eighteen months old)

So he’s off today to the vets (in about half an hour, actually) and he’s already not happy. Because he’ll be under a general anaesthetic, he’s not been allowed to have any food since half nine last night – and he’s currently stalking round the house, yelling that he’s hungry, and that we’re all rotten for not feeding him. He’s even less impressed now I’ve brought the carrying basket for him in from the garage – now he knows that something is most definitely Not Right.

He’ll be happier once he’s back from the vet, although it’ll probably (as usual) take a couple of days for us to be properly forgiven for taking him there. But once he’s tidied up and not so godawful matted he’ll be happier – he doesn’t actually like it when he’s in this state, but he does fuck all about it, which is why we have to go to these lengths to get it sorted.

Behaviour

Over the last two weeks, both of our animals have really surprised me in how they’ve handled us having builders here and so on.

Hound has been amazingly well behaved. Yes, sure, she’s been in the car during the day (with windows open when necessary) but she’s just slept. Now we’ve observed before that she’s actually probably just a lazy cow when we’re not around, and spends most of the day sleeping, but she’s proved it now. She has a basket in the back of my car, and just hops in there when the workmen arrive, and sleeps all day. I take her out for a walk at lunchtime if possible, but even then she just goes back in the car and sleeps.

Even more surprisingly, she hasn’t been a stress-head when anything goes on around her, either. The postman has walked past the car (with her in it) every day, and she hasn’t reacted at all. Window cleaners, deliveries, cesspit-emptier, skip – they’ve all gone past the car and she hasn’t reacted at all. In fact the only thing she barks at when they go past on the road are horses – for some reason she really hates horses – but that’s it. Nothing else disturbs her at all.

Psycho Cat on the other hand is really pissed off with the entire thing. He’s been stalking round the house, attacking things, and generally being a complete pain in the arse. He is seriously unimpressed with the entire thing – and is, I think, finding it all quite traumatic. He’s certainly coming to me in the evenings for more of a fuss and reassurance than he usually does.

Today though, the plumber is replacing radiators – which has also necessitated a ladder up into the loft. Psycho Cat disappeared. (You can see where this is going, can’t you?) Yes, he’d climbed the ladder, and was exploring the loft. Only he hadn’t thought about how he was going to get back down, so instead was yelling from the loft hatch for someone to come and get him.

He put up a struggle about coming down though – obviously thought that even though I’d got hold of the little pillock, he was going to fall, and kept digging his claws into the edge of the loft hatch. It ended up with me freeing his claws again and then quickly bringing him down below the level of the hatch, at which point he kind of relaxed and gave up a bit, with nothing to cling on to, just trusting me (a little bit) to bring him down to ground level. And then I’ve also moved the ladder – it seemed sensible.

He’s still not happy, mind you. So I’m sure he’ll find somewhere else to hide before long.