Giving a Cat a Bath

Is NOT something I would recommend under any circumstances. I used to have to bathe my cats regularly when we lived in flea country, but fortunately there are no fleas here so I thought I was out of it. Boy was I wrong. It turns out that Obsidian has Ringworm, which is actually a fungus, not a worm at all, and not only did I have to bathe him today, but I have had to redo al the laundry in the house and clean the entire house to eliminate the horrible infectious spores (this part is waiting until tomorrow).

Now you wouldn;t think it a big deal for a 200 lb man and a 180 lb woman to give a 4 lb kitten a bath. There you are mistaken. "Just put a screen over the sink," said the vet. They like to hold onto that. And some of them really get into it once you start scrubbing"o we dutifully found an old window screen, put it over the sink for him to cling to and went to work. He had to be lathered twice, once in shampoo and once in betadyne solution.

Well, Obi promptly destroyed the screen and started trying to climb up anything in the near vicinity to escape the water, in cluding me and my husband. He is obviously not one of those cats who "Gets into it" once you start scrubbing. I have the marks to prove it.

I don't actually know if we gave an effective enough bath to kill the ringworm spores on him, but after 15 minutes we had to give up. He was just so pitiful. But you know, during the whole process he didn;t make a sound.

And that's how it went to bathe our most mellow cat. Gods forbid any of the others come down with it! And I'm not looking forward to repeating the process with Obi, either.

PS--to Norman Traum wherever you are: Happy 40th birthday!