Wednesday, April 23, 2008

Cat-Shaving Weather

It's spring. The days grow longer, flowers shoulder their way out of the warming earth, the scent of barbeque wafts through the neighborhood. Have you shaved your cat today?

I've written about Amber the Simple Cat before. Amber joined our family after a veterinarian friend of ours saved her wee kitten life. She was found alone in a field, just a few weeks old, comatose, and our good friend nursed her back from the brink. Then this good, good friend called us and asked if we could give the kitten a home because, if we didn't, he was regretfully going to have to send her to the pound and his heroic life-saving effort would likely be in vain. "Oh, and by the way, she's probably brain damaged."

Well, you can't say "no" to a good, good, good friend like that. I wanted to name her "Eileen" because she had no cat-balance abilities at all (like the old joke: "I lean"), but my wife and kids vetoed that as an affront to her dignity (like how's she gonna know?) so we settled on "Amber" after her golden color. And she's been a fine addition to our family, with luckily no lingering health problems and a disposition just as sweet as she is stupid. Which is very.

Now, Amber is a tabby with long hair. We didn't know about the long hair when we took her in, nor did we anticipate that she'd never really get the hang of grooming herself, she'd hate brushing, and our other cats would be no help whatsoever. All autumn and winter she builds up massive mats and tangles, shedding ever more elaborate tufts throughout the house; every spring when the weather turns warm enough, we have our good, good, good, good friend shave it all off.

If you're ever in my home and want to know if spring has arrived, just look for the naked pissed-off bobble-headed cat.

11 comments:

Sherwood Harrington said...

This is just wonderful, but maybe it takes another companion of a brain-impaired cat to recognize its wonderfulness.

I wonder: if
Fonzie
and Amber ever met, what might happen?

Brian Fies said...

Worlds would collide, my friend. Worlds would collide.

Mike Lynch said...

Yipes! Can you at least put an orange shirt on the guy?

Quasi said...

When my human shaved me once. He waited until the end of June as it can still get chilly in So. Cal up until then. Although I didn't enjoy it at the time, I certainly didn't mind not hacking up hairballs.

Anonymous said...

I am not pleased by cats who allow their apes to shave them so. Possibly this one needs to be educated .

Brian Fies said...

Did I forget to mention that Amber is an indoor cat living in soft and warm kitty luxury? She's feeling no discomfort, I assure you.

Anonymous said...

I just knew you'd be a cat-person! :-) All the best people are!

Cindy said...
This comment has been removed by the author.
Cindy said...

One of our pet rats is named Climber. Shortly after he came to us he developed one of the respiratory infections these little guys are unfortunately prone to. Unfortunately the vet's assistant didn't hear me quite right and probably wasn't expecting to meet a bilingual rat, so instead of typing in his proud English name she entered him into the system as "Kneimur". My husband likes to call him that, which drives our youngest son crazy. "His name is CLIMBER!" But I don't think the little squeaker knows or cares, so long as he gets scritched and fed Cheerios on a regular basis.

"Eileen" would have been a fine name

Anonymous said...

Oh the humanity!!

Anonymous said...

Although I did not enjoy it at the time, I certainly did not mind not hacking up hairballs.
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Persian Cats and Kittens - Purrinlot Cattery