Steve is one of the most glamorous beasts I’ve ever known, so when he sit on my lap and looks adoringly at me, it’s pretty awesome:
Tomorrow we’re going to the groomers. Time for his spring trimming.
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Elliott
surly
Omnes Omnibus
You and cameras just don’t agree, do you?
mclaren
Steve is not looking adoringly at you, Cole. He’s wondering what you taste like.
Steeplejack
There will be blood.
danielx
It’s that time all right, made an appointment today to get our boy Eric cleaned up. He’s 19 now and I wouldn’t make book on him needing any more trips after this one, which will probably suit him fine as he reacts to vet/groomer visits about as well as Tunch the Terrifying..
danielx
Steve is looking pensive…..honey mustard or barbecue sauce?
AkaDad
If I were captioning that pic: SOON
pseudonymous in nc
It’s still a bit early for our Senior Cat (black, fuzzy, grumpy) to have his traumatic annual session with the groomer, in order to allow him to survive the height of summer and also the warm early autumn. He’s at the point where he’s enjoying the abnormal weather — late spring in early spring — but also retreating to shade when the day’s at its warmest. Of course, we’re going to have the weekend cold snap to reset things a little.
Jerzy Russian
Save all of the trimmings so that you can have a sweater made.
Prescott Cactus
You’re a little late. Pitchers report mid Feb and players late Feb for Spring Triming.
seaboogie
Oh yay – an open thread with a cat in the lede – just what I was looking for!
Last night about 1:30 am I was awakened by my 20-yr-old kitty Zoe crashing into the water glass on her tray on our shared bed. She couldn’t walk, and was stumbling and collapsing. There may have been her trying to poop on her pee pads involved.
So I calmed her, and observed that her head was swaying. Turned on the flashlight to my iphone and realized that she had major nystagmus, which – in this case – was like watching her eyes go to and fro like the eyes on a Felix the Cat wall clock. I went from “OMG, Zoe is dying, to – oh she has vestibular disease/disorder”. The falling down and not being able to walk that looks like a stone drunk or a stroke victim is called ataxia. My pup Seamus had this a couple of times in his later months before he passed away – and it is benign, but disturbing for pet and mistress, nonetheless.
Googled the cat version of Vestibular Disease, and it usually resolves within a few days, so I calmed her and she slept, and I tried to figure out how to manage this for her while I am at work for the next few days.
Woke up a few hours later, and she was totally fine – like it never happened! Yowling for breakfast, and tonight yowling for dinner too, but a bit wearier for the experience. This cat-o-mine is like the Energizer Bunny.
Found an errant little cat turd in the bed in the am, and I was all – yeah – whatever. Kitty is fine. Mistress mostly so, also too.
Calouste
Look like we could soon be reading the obituary of well-known loudmouth and drug-addict Rob Ford.
Mike J
@Calouste: Sad that Chris Farley never got a chance to play him.
jl
Hope the grooming goes well and Cole comes out of it looking at least half as cool and sexy as Steve does already.
Good luck Cole. Don’t bite anybody, no scratching.
Edit: was going to add suave but don’t want to get Cole’s hopes up.
Mingobat f/k/a Karen in GA
Steve is a majestic beast.
Speaking of beasts, I’m hearing occasional scratching noises coming from inside my bedroom wall. I am displeased.
ruemara
Make sure it’s a groomer that doesn’t stress out the cat. You’re so lucky to have a wonderful fluff beast like him.
Oregon Rose
You have a beautiful boy there, JC. Our kitties are all over the rainbow bridge, and while it’s ever so nice not to deal with allergies, random midnight cat barf, and fur on every surface and piece of clothing, we miss the sweet purries every day.
Villago Delenda Est
@Steeplejack: My first thought about the groomer expedition.
Be afraid.
Emerald
That is one massive, good lookin’ cat.
And lucky. That is a lucky cat. He picked an awesome rescuer!
opiejeanne
Is he getting a panty trim? That’s what my daughter’s vet called it when they cleaned up her Maine Coon. She and my other daughter did it exactly once for Whiskers and paid the professionals forever after.
Miss Whiskers passed on to that land of free-flowing catnip last year but the dust bunnies she created live on. I swear, our own Maine coon has been gone for 5 years and I still find Killer Dust Bunnies* lurking under furniture we didn’t even own when he was alive, but they can’t be from our current cat.
*Anyone else remember where Killer Dust Bunnies is from?
Elmo
Heh. I lived in ski country too long – when I saw the post title, my first thought was “Oh cool, a ski trip story. Probably good that a guy like JC doesn’t ski the bumps, he’d get killed.”
Nevermind. Carry on.
seaboogie
I am really not feeling the BJ love. Last night I thought my kitty was going to die (happily not the case per my post above), crashing and collaspsing in the bed. 10 days ago a giant oak tree crashed on my roof after the NorCal rains. All is good and the structure is sound, but it was a bit weird to be awoken by such and then try to go back to sleep under said oak tree on the roof.
Alas, my DSH cat does not have pantaloons to shear, but she does poop in the bed (in which she lives, on the pee pads). That has to count for something….
opiejeanne
Let’s see if I can do this correctly. This is my middle child with Miss Whiskers.
Whiskers & Beth
opiejeanne
And this is our big boy. That is not a small planter.
Tommy
opiejeanne
@seaboogie: I’m so sorry that you may be losing your kitty and that a tree fell on your house, but I’m glad it didn’t damage it. (How can that be possible?)
We had terrible winds this past weekend, trees and power lines came down, tree branches lying across power lines were on fire, and it was generally exciting to be without power for 22 hours. We have a generator so nothing went bad but it was a bit of a nuisance. One thing I will say is that my Nook came in very handy when the sun went down, but what was very hard to deal with was no internet at all for most of the time, and our cell phones couldn’t even complete a call. Thinking of getting a basic land line because we are in our 60s and would like the fire dept to find us if we pass out during a 911 call.
seaboogie
@opiejeanne: Thank you for your reply, Dearie, and glad that you have survived as well. Funny how we can deal without power now, but without the internets, we are lost. After the tree fall, I checked that we had power – but the internets were the important thing.
Your dealio was much more extensive and dramatic and traumatic than mine – which was a rain-soaked, compromised tree falling in a drenching situation. My sitch was waking up at 2 am to wonder “what the HELL just happened? Earthquake? Hmmm…no tremors or aftershock. Whatever is was though, was BIG! Putting on slippers….End of the world? Possibly…better go outside and check. Kitty of last night’s drama slept through the whole thing.
opiejeanne
@seaboogie: Did you hear about the gas leak explosion in Seattle last week? 9 firemen went to the hospital with minor injuries thank goodness, and no one died.
It made the New York Times (maybe a slow evening).
It was 4 blocks from my middle child’s house, and we live way over on the East Side in Woodinville, roughly 8 miles away as the crow flies, and it rocked our house, followed by the sound wave. Being a native of SoCal I thought it was an earthquake but as I checked the reporting sites there was no activity in our area reported. It was 1:43am, and I was awake so when my daughter posted about it I realized that we had felt the explosion. My youngest lives a mile from it and slept right through it.
The devastation to the neighborhood was/is traumatic, 3 or maybe 4 businesses destroyed, 39 businesses damaged, but surviving businesses pitched in to donate a percentage of their daily profit to those who were destroyed.
The shops lost were a QuickMart, Mr Gyro, Neptune Coffee, and possibly the bike shop next door. People were leaving the bar across the street when it went up and were lucky to not be injured.
Worse things than living without power for 22 hours, and we don’t have trees near enough to the house to hit it if they came down. I liked that about this place before I even considered the winds we get here; I don’t really care for the look of green slime growing on the houses here.
JPL
@seaboogie: Glad the kitty is okay, at least for the time being.
PurpleGirl
opiejeanne and seaboogie: You both have my heartfelt best wishes. It’s not nice to be without power or to be losing a cherished pet. Hoping the next few days are easier for you both. (Last Saturday/Sunday my complex was without water for most of a day, but we had water back by 6 pm Sunday.)
MomSense
I have to take the princess for a pedicure. She just won’t do the at- home version like I do.
MomSense
@seaboogie:
So sorry about your kitty. My late great lab had vestibular disorder in his last year and it really was traumatic for all of us. I’m hoping for the best for your sweet kitty.
PaulWartenberg2016
I had to get my cat Ocean groomed, and because of how matted her back hair was they had to shave her down to lion shape.
I can’t upload photos to this, but I blogged the horror at my librarian page. http://wittylibrarian.blogspot.com/2016/03/another-caturday-in-march-2016.html
J.
Some cat.
–Charlotte
satby
@seaboogie: I’m happy that your Zoe was fine the next morning after such a scare! 20 is a long life for a cat, I hope she has more comfortable months to go.
Om on the tree, I can relate a bit though the oak tree that fell on the garage at my Chicago home (now my oldest son’s) completely demolished it. If someone had been inside the garage they would have been killed. How much repair will you need to your roof?
satby
@opiejeanne: That’s terrible, but at least no one was injured or killed. Must have been frightening for your family.
daryljfontaine
@seaboogie: My first kitty Shada presented with vestibular disease, and had episodes off and on for about two years before she passed on at 18 years. It’s a frightening thing to see, but can be managed medically. Best of luck with Zoe.
D
opiejeanne
@PurpleGirl:
Living without water even for a couple of hours is really hard.
We are fine. Being without water is far worse than losing electricity for a day. There were people who had to wait another 24 hours for power, but this was nothing compared to the last big power outage from a storm that affected the entire state and part of Idaho.
opiejeanne
@satby: Thanks. Our older daughter was awake because there were sirens for a while before the explosion and when it blew up there was no more sleep that night.
Firemen were already on the scene looking for the leak and it’s just a miracle none of them were killed.
fedupwithhypocrisy
Awww! Our Maine Coon, Marley, died in my arms Tuesday–two days before his twelfth birthday. :-( They are such good kitties.
kc
Wow, Steve is gorgeous. What a cat.
kc
@fedupwithhypocrisy:
I’m so sorry!
Pogonip
@kc: “…Steve is gorgeous…”
How can you tell?
We need to take up a collection to buy Cole some light bulbs.
Last week I was pretty sure my father was having a mini-stroke when he not only turned on a lamp but removed the shade. He is back home now and has returned to his usual Cole, Count Dracula levels of lighting.
FMBJO
Where have I been all my life. I never heard of taking a cat to be trimmed. May we see an “after” picture?
Tom
When we had a Maine Coon, we used to take him to the groomers every few weeks for “the works”., i.e. bath, nail trim, hair cut and brush.
It took two groomers (he was a 22 pound kitty) and his patience would run out about two-thirds of the way through and he would chase the groomers around the table.
However, the results were totally worth it. He looked great, smelled good and his cut made him look like a lion.
mr_gravity
Stop by the drugstore.
You need some new flashbulbs.
fedupwithhypocrisy
@kc: thanks
seaboogie
@opiejeanne: Once you have a tree fall on your joint, you kind of look at most large trees as kind of suspect – especially around here were they have been weakened by drought for several years, and now saturated by El Nino.
OTOH, a gas line blowing up in your and your daughter’s hood would seem to make the world at large scarier and more unpredictable, in what is – admittedly – an otherwise extrememly pleasant place to live. I’ve been to Woodinvile, BTW – specifically to Molbak’s while working with a sales rep when I worked with a Canadian art publishing company. Lovely!
seaboogie
@fedupwithhypocrisy: Oh, I am so sorry that you lost your sweet Marley! I hope it was a comfort to you (as it surely was for him) to have him pass away in your arms. Loving thoughts to you from my and Zo-Bob (Zoe’s Texas nym).
seaboogie
@daryljfontaine: Tremendous relief that she rallied so quickly – like 3 or 4 hours later! Once I realized what it was, I calmed down considerably, although at this age one is always prepared. One day I came home and she was sleepy realllly, really soundly. It took several prods to wake her up, and I was sure she was dead. Seems like she has about 7 more lives left, though – she just keeps ticking away. Sorry you lost your kitty eventually, though.
@satby: Thanks for the concern. Actually, I don’t think that there is any structural damage at all on my garage/cottage. The house took the first hit of a massive 2 trunked oak and I think softened the blow to the cottage. Even so, the house is not in terrible shape. The facsia is hanging off and a joist will probably need reinforcement. I hope that your son had insurance and he has a fancy new garage that is not threatened by any other unstable trees. When something like this occurs and nobody is hurt, the whole “Barn’s burnt down – now I can see the moon” perspective is a nice one to take. A good reminder of the fragility of life and what is really important.
Given that my little Buddhist/Hindu altar table lies about 8 feet directly under where the tree landed and an equal distance from where my cat sleeps, it really seems to be doing the job. It’s Quan Yin’ed up the yin yang, and the reclining Buddha has a very Obama-esque “Chill Out – I Got This” sort of vibe on this soft spring evening.
fedupwithhypocrisy
@seaboogie: Thank you. It was very unexpected and very sudden–assume seizure from heart/stroke or some such? At least it wasn’t a lingering death, aiee.