Pic #2 is me when I’m getting a shot. Looking away and deliberately ignoring what’s happening.
9.
Odie Hugh Manatee
I see that he gets walrus whiskers when he’s in water…lol!
10.
Tdjr
Oh my. I see some feverish planning going on in those expressions. I hope you have your will made John.
11.
RaflW
@WaterGirl: Vaccinations I tend to look away. Phlebotomists I tend to watch. Not sure why.
My flu shot was so fast and painless that, had I not had a sore arm a couple days later, I’da thought she didn’t ever actually inject me. Guess I should have watched!
12.
kalakal
I love pic #3 . He looks so sweet and so “Why me?”
I’ve had cats that loved going to the vets, I’ve now got one where it takes a 3 week campaign to get her into the carrier. I’m glad I’ve never had one that needed taken to be groomed.
My favourite ever picture of a cat after a bath, so much retribution is promised.
Steve looks good wet. Beautiful eyes. Probably just as well we can’t see the thought bubble.
19.
JoyceH
I’m sure there’s a reason, but I forget – why does Steve need to get baths? Most of the cats I’ve had were never bathed in their lives. I did have one who had fleas and a flea allergy that caused her fur to fall out – I had to bathe her regularly with a medicated shampoo and then leave it on her for fifteen minutes. Not pleasant!
If I remember correctly( it’s a pretty old photo) that poor cat had got trapped in a sewer pipe for a few days before being rescued and had to endure some pretty intensive cleaning. It was mad as hell.
21.
eclare
@JoyceH: I’ve never bathed any of my cats either and was wondering too.
@JoyceH: My Maine Coon rescue, Fredo, never learned how to properly groom himself. I thought it was instinctive for cats to groom, and he did try occasionally, but he never quite got the knack and I’d have to send him to the groomers every 4-6 months to get him spruced up.
I remembered John talking about the challenges of brushing Steve. Found this back in April of 2019
“It takes a lot to keep Steve looking like a king, and I did some grooming tonight. It’s a delicate process- I have to speak in soft tones and assure him everything is going to be ok, all while working out the matted hair and areas where he has plopped his fat ass into pine sap and created an unholy mess AND keeping a firm grip on him so he can not make an escape.”
I guess every now and then even a thorough – if also risky – brushing isn’t enough.
29.
Danielx
At least he doesn’t require a kitty straitjacket, a la Tunch the Dread.
30.
mrmoshpotato
@RaflW: He looks like a kitten (big kitten) in photo 3, but the length of his whiskers yells “I’m an old man!” 🤣
31.
prostratedragon
@kalakal:
“and so ‘Why me?'” Exactly! The very image of pathos.
ETA: Oh that linked picture! I really would have to go through an agonizing reappraisal — from witness protection.
33.
gvg
I had a childhood cat who was sprayed by mean mosquito control people. We came home to a cat that looked wet but was dry stiff with insecticide like a 50’s hairspray coating. We had to bath her and it was a challenge. My father took his shrimp net scoop off the frame and we rolled the cat in the strait jacket of netting and then rinsed and rinsed trying to get it off her without getting any in her eyes or mouth. It was amazing she had sense not to groom herself and come to us for help because we weren’t even home when it happened and also amazing she forgave us after the bath. Those spray men could have killed her and if we had know who they were…neighbors helped us guess what happened. All my cats after that were indoor only.
34.
The Moar You Know
I bought a pair of gloves for ripping out asparagus fern, the Satan of plants.
They work quite well for that. They go to the elbows and are extremely thick leather.
The negative reviews went more or less like this: “NOT THICK ENOUGH TO WASH CAT” “TEETH WENT RIGHT THROUGH GLOVES” “I NOW HAVE LIFE-THREATENING CATBITE INFECTION”…you get the idea.
35.
Leslie
Aww, poor sweet kitty. The fact that he did not attack either you or the groomer is proof of what a tolerant fellow he really is.
36.
MelissaM
Steve looks miserable, but taking it, not lashing out at the groomers. Good boy! (Cole may need to watch his back, tho.)
37.
way2blue
Oh my gosh! Steve looks like a kitten when wet—not a lion. Who woulda known? Now his secret is out…
38.
trollhattan
How are you alive? Steve is the size of some eastern counties. Speaking of things cat, this needs sharing here. It’s from today’s Letters of Note.
The Fat Cat Sits on my Feet. Fat is not enough to describe him by now. He must weigh pounds & pounds. And his lovely black coat is turning white. I suppose it’s to prevent the mountains from seeing him. He sleeps here & occasionally creeps up to my chest & pads softly with his paws, singing the while. I suppose he wants to see if I have the same face all night. I long to surprise him with terrific disguises. M. calls him “my Breakfast cat”, because they share that meal—two boys—alone together. M. at the table and Wingley on. It’s awful the love one can lavish on an animal. Katharine Mansfield Letter to Dorothy Brett, 4th Nov 1921
Relatable to some, I’ll guess.
39.
Ken
Probably it’s the effect of the years of stories, which have me hearing “Steve at groomer” and thinking “furry fanged whirlwind resembling Looney Tunes Tasmanian Devil”, but Steve looks surprisingly tranquil, or even drugged. He didn’t get into your rainbow fentanyl?
Steve actually looks pretty chill: more plaintive than angry. He could, of course, just be biding his time…
I never had to bathe my kitties until I got a couple of longhairs.
Now Jeannie is too old and ill to groom herself. She got a lion cut when she had her teeth done. Now I occasionally go over her gently with a warm, wet washcloth, which she loves. I also scritch deep in her ears, because she can’t scratch or clean those out anymore, either.
Oscar will consent only to being lightly brushed; fortunately, his coat doesn’t mat with the same alacrity that Jeannie’s coat did/does.
46.
zhena gogolia
@eclare: I never bathed a cat unless they got into something.
47.
MomSense
Oh pobrecito. He looks so miserable.
48.
Tinare
As I was reading this, my long haired kitty reached out her paw to me. She has forgiven me for last Saturday when I spent an hour cutting mats out of her hind end where she doesn’t groom herself very well and brushing her with the rake-like brush. During the process she several times grabbed my hand in her mouth warning me that she could really hurt me if she wanted to, but she didn’t. I think she was sympathetic to Steve’s plight.
49.
trollhattan
@Tinare: Granny kept cats, longhaired, and they’d beg for brushings, which she was very content to do for hours. It was a curious thing, but I expect they understood they had it GOOD at Chez Granny. Probably compared notes with the neighbor cats (who spent time outdoors in the Iowa winters).
50.
eclare
@Tinare: Awww, sweet kitty. Both of mine have been to the vet this week for annual exams. Both did very well.
51.
KayInMD (formerly Kay (not the front-pager))
@way2blue: “Steve looks like a kitten when wet—not a lion.”
That’s what I thought! He looks so much smaller! Did he get all his fur cut off, or just mats?
I’m going to have to take my Loki in soon. I’ve been able to pull out three of his smaller mats, but he has a patch on his left flank that’s really tight to the skin that will need to be shaved. Those can get infected. I comb him every day, but his undercoat is so fine that once mats start there is no combing or working them out, they have to be cut out. he had to have his teeth out, so he has trouble taking care of them himself. Really, he always did, but it’s worse now. Now I realize what he’ll look like wet, it makes me a little sad.
52.
JR in WV
We had a cat that marched around under an old truck, and got some kind of engine fluids all over his back. Was really ugly black oily film, and of course if we had let him try to groom that it would have poisoned the poor kitty. So I got my welding gloves, and we filled the kitchen sink with warm water, and in he went. Dawn dish soap, as used on critters caught after major oil spills.
It rinses out better than most soap products. Much toweling dry after the torture as well, but kitty was all clean and dry after the procedure, and the gloves were cat proof thick leather…
53.
PBK
@CaseyL: The humans and kitties here are sending good thoughts to you and Jeannie especially but Oscar too of course. Don’t want him to feel left out.
54.
prostratedragon
@zhena gogolia: There was the time Tommy went exploring behind the stove. Around the same time he learned that the big coolwhite thing he liked to jump into for a stretch-out sometimes had WATER! in it. There was rarely a dull moment in those late kittenhood months.
55.
ellie
Oh my God that face! I love him.
56.
NorthLeft
I remember that look from the three different cats I have been lucky enough to live with….it translates roughly to “I will never forgive you for this indignity!”
My girlfriend and I had a cat (sadly passed) that the vet and techs routinely wore armored gauntlets to handle.
They all loved him anyway.
58.
lurker
you MONSTER! how can you LIVE WITH YOURSELF AFTER DOING THAT TO ME!
–speaking for steve
(mr. ed voice in picture 2)
Wilbur, (pause), this is b*llsh*t
–also speaking for steve
for myself, i second the thought that he looks like a sweet little kitty all wet, which is probably his real reason for not liking the process – revealing a part of himself that makes him vulnerable ; – )
59.
SteverinoCT
My short-hairs were sweet and mellow. One not only walked over some fresh white paint, she then lay down in it. She came home still wet, and I was able to cradle her over the sink and wash her off with warm water. She balked at dipping her paws, so I had to wash them off, too. That’s the extent of any bathing.
60.
Westyny
In your sleep, John. He’s coming for you then.
61.
StringOnAStick
We have a pair of sisters that look at lot like Steve. One loves to be combed, the harder the better; she’ll even help pull away when you snag a mat and loves it. She’s slightly brain damaged and a permanent kitten so maybe she sees the heavy combing as the replacement for the mom she lost at 2 weeks old. The other one is highly offended if you try to do any kind of grooming; fortunately her fur is much less prone to mats and has yet to have even a hint of one.
Back in college, I groomed pets to pay my way. It is much easier to groom a cat and give it a bath if you have a frame with chicken wire or hardware cloth or whatever you have to use. Attach the mesh to the frame, add padding so it doesn’t scratch the tub, and put the cat on the mesh. Pull the tail just enough so that the claws engage with the mesh. As long as you hold the tail with some tension, you’re golden. (Keep your hands away from the mouth). It can be done by one person but two makes it a lot easier and faster.
64.
Ruckus
Ornery Bastard, AKA Bud, was never allowed back at a groomers a second time. I had to learn how after I ran out of even not so local groomers. First bit of kit was a muzzle, which had to be installed very rapidly and forcefully. Second was figuring out how to hold him and trim at the same time, because if you didn’t, you’d pay. And that was with the muzzle. Also this had to be done once a month at least, because that guy could grow hair like no body’s business. Could have served him filet mignon every day if anyone would pay for a bushel of dog hair.
65.
CaseyL
I bet Steve poses and preens for the camera when the groom is complete and he’s (even more) beautiful.
IOW, he loves the product, but not the process.
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pat
Aw, poor kitty!
When does Maxwell Edison (did I get that right?) come to make his live.. miserable, or exciting, Stay tuned!
eta: life, not live. And I will not say… you know…..
geg6
OMG, he’s terrifyingly adorable. Better have some tuna ready in the fridge.
WaterGirl
Steve looks SO different when he’s wet. He looks like a sweet kitty when wet, but not like majestic Steve
4 towels, though, that’s impressive.
rikyrah
Steve still terrifies me. But, he’s also quite handsome.
Heidi Mom
The bottom photo shows a truly defeated cat–but just wait!
Cathie from Canada
We are not amused!
RaflW
The best 4 photo storyline evah!
LOL.
But you should have warned us so we could donate blood in advance to offset your loss, John
eta: Photo 3’s “What have you done to me!!” is just making me laugh and laugh.
WaterGirl
Pic #2 is me when I’m getting a shot. Looking away and deliberately ignoring what’s happening.
Odie Hugh Manatee
I see that he gets walrus whiskers when he’s in water…lol!
Tdjr
Oh my. I see some feverish planning going on in those expressions. I hope you have your will made John.
RaflW
@WaterGirl: Vaccinations I tend to look away. Phlebotomists I tend to watch. Not sure why.
My flu shot was so fast and painless that, had I not had a sore arm a couple days later, I’da thought she didn’t ever actually inject me. Guess I should have watched!
kalakal
I love pic #3 . He looks so sweet and so “Why me?”
I’ve had cats that loved going to the vets, I’ve now got one where it takes a 3 week campaign to get her into the carrier. I’m glad I’ve never had one that needed taken to be groomed.
My favourite ever picture of a cat after a bath, so much retribution is promised.
https://images.app.goo.gl/qmXJX2K1ucRaeyUJA
Yutsano
Ahi.
Now.
Hooman.
Old School
Those poor groomers….
eclare
@kalakal: Oh that is awful!
WaterGirl
@kalakal: whoa! Scary!
Dangerman
Sushi grade and catnip. Lots of catnip.
Elizabelle
Steve looks good wet. Beautiful eyes. Probably just as well we can’t see the thought bubble.
JoyceH
I’m sure there’s a reason, but I forget – why does Steve need to get baths? Most of the cats I’ve had were never bathed in their lives. I did have one who had fleas and a flea allergy that caused her fur to fall out – I had to bathe her regularly with a medicated shampoo and then leave it on her for fifteen minutes. Not pleasant!
kalakal
@eclare:
@WaterGirl:
If I remember correctly( it’s a pretty old photo) that poor cat had got trapped in a sewer pipe for a few days before being rescued and had to endure some pretty intensive cleaning. It was mad as hell.
eclare
@JoyceH: I’ve never bathed any of my cats either and was wondering too.
eclare
@kalakal: Ewwwww…sewer pipe
Dorothy A. Winsor
Sleep lightly tonight, John
Baud
@Dorothy A. Winsor:
Holding your pillow tight.
Dangerman
@Baud: Exit light?
coin operated
@JoyceH: My Maine Coon rescue, Fredo, never learned how to properly groom himself. I thought it was instinctive for cats to groom, and he did try occasionally, but he never quite got the knack and I’d have to send him to the groomers every 4-6 months to get him spruced up.
Baud
@Dangerman: Enter
NightSteve!RaflW
I remembered John talking about the challenges of brushing Steve. Found this back in April of 2019
“It takes a lot to keep Steve looking like a king, and I did some grooming tonight. It’s a delicate process- I have to speak in soft tones and assure him everything is going to be ok, all while working out the matted hair and areas where he has plopped his fat ass into pine sap and created an unholy mess AND keeping a firm grip on him so he can not make an escape.”
I guess every now and then even a thorough – if also risky – brushing isn’t enough.
Danielx
At least he doesn’t require a kitty straitjacket, a la Tunch the Dread.
mrmoshpotato
@RaflW: He looks like a kitten (big kitten) in photo 3, but the length of his whiskers yells “I’m an old man!” 🤣
prostratedragon
@kalakal:
“and so ‘Why me?'” Exactly! The very image of pathos.
prostratedragon
@prostratedragon:
ETA: Oh that linked picture! I really would have to go through an agonizing reappraisal — from witness protection.
gvg
I had a childhood cat who was sprayed by mean mosquito control people. We came home to a cat that looked wet but was dry stiff with insecticide like a 50’s hairspray coating. We had to bath her and it was a challenge. My father took his shrimp net scoop off the frame and we rolled the cat in the strait jacket of netting and then rinsed and rinsed trying to get it off her without getting any in her eyes or mouth. It was amazing she had sense not to groom herself and come to us for help because we weren’t even home when it happened and also amazing she forgave us after the bath. Those spray men could have killed her and if we had know who they were…neighbors helped us guess what happened. All my cats after that were indoor only.
The Moar You Know
I bought a pair of gloves for ripping out asparagus fern, the Satan of plants.
They work quite well for that. They go to the elbows and are extremely thick leather.
The negative reviews went more or less like this: “NOT THICK ENOUGH TO WASH CAT” “TEETH WENT RIGHT THROUGH GLOVES” “I NOW HAVE LIFE-THREATENING CATBITE INFECTION”…you get the idea.
Leslie
Aww, poor sweet kitty. The fact that he did not attack either you or the groomer is proof of what a tolerant fellow he really is.
MelissaM
Steve looks miserable, but taking it, not lashing out at the groomers. Good boy! (Cole may need to watch his back, tho.)
way2blue
Oh my gosh! Steve looks like a kitten when wet—not a lion. Who woulda known? Now his secret is out…
trollhattan
How are you alive? Steve is the size of some eastern counties. Speaking of things cat, this needs sharing here. It’s from today’s Letters of Note.
Relatable to some, I’ll guess.
Ken
Probably it’s the effect of the years of stories, which have me hearing “Steve at groomer” and thinking “furry fanged whirlwind resembling Looney Tunes Tasmanian Devil”, but Steve looks surprisingly tranquil, or even drugged. He didn’t get into your rainbow fentanyl?
mrmoshpotato
@trollhattan:
Stop hunting cats, you damn mountains.
Jeffery
The betrayal in those eyes.
Sister Golden Bear
Siri, order all the tuna. I want to live.
mrmoshpotato
@Sister Golden Bear:
And all the salmon.
And all the sardines.
…
Lady WereBear
He does have a Pallas cat vibe.
CaseyL
Steve actually looks pretty chill: more plaintive than angry. He could, of course, just be biding his time…
I never had to bathe my kitties until I got a couple of longhairs.
Now Jeannie is too old and ill to groom herself. She got a lion cut when she had her teeth done. Now I occasionally go over her gently with a warm, wet washcloth, which she loves. I also scritch deep in her ears, because she can’t scratch or clean those out anymore, either.
Oscar will consent only to being lightly brushed; fortunately, his coat doesn’t mat with the same alacrity that Jeannie’s coat did/does.
zhena gogolia
@eclare: I never bathed a cat unless they got into something.
MomSense
Oh pobrecito. He looks so miserable.
Tinare
As I was reading this, my long haired kitty reached out her paw to me. She has forgiven me for last Saturday when I spent an hour cutting mats out of her hind end where she doesn’t groom herself very well and brushing her with the rake-like brush. During the process she several times grabbed my hand in her mouth warning me that she could really hurt me if she wanted to, but she didn’t. I think she was sympathetic to Steve’s plight.
trollhattan
@Tinare: Granny kept cats, longhaired, and they’d beg for brushings, which she was very content to do for hours. It was a curious thing, but I expect they understood they had it GOOD at Chez Granny. Probably compared notes with the neighbor cats (who spent time outdoors in the Iowa winters).
eclare
@Tinare: Awww, sweet kitty. Both of mine have been to the vet this week for annual exams. Both did very well.
KayInMD (formerly Kay (not the front-pager))
@way2blue: “Steve looks like a kitten when wet—not a lion.”
That’s what I thought! He looks so much smaller! Did he get all his fur cut off, or just mats?
I’m going to have to take my Loki in soon. I’ve been able to pull out three of his smaller mats, but he has a patch on his left flank that’s really tight to the skin that will need to be shaved. Those can get infected. I comb him every day, but his undercoat is so fine that once mats start there is no combing or working them out, they have to be cut out. he had to have his teeth out, so he has trouble taking care of them himself. Really, he always did, but it’s worse now. Now I realize what he’ll look like wet, it makes me a little sad.
JR in WV
We had a cat that marched around under an old truck, and got some kind of engine fluids all over his back. Was really ugly black oily film, and of course if we had let him try to groom that it would have poisoned the poor kitty. So I got my welding gloves, and we filled the kitchen sink with warm water, and in he went. Dawn dish soap, as used on critters caught after major oil spills.
It rinses out better than most soap products. Much toweling dry after the torture as well, but kitty was all clean and dry after the procedure, and the gloves were cat proof thick leather…
PBK
@CaseyL: The humans and kitties here are sending good thoughts to you and Jeannie especially but Oscar too of course. Don’t want him to feel left out.
prostratedragon
@zhena gogolia: There was the time Tommy went exploring behind the stove. Around the same time he learned that the big coolwhite thing he liked to jump into for a stretch-out sometimes had WATER! in it. There was rarely a dull moment in those late kittenhood months.
ellie
Oh my God that face! I love him.
NorthLeft
I remember that look from the three different cats I have been lucky enough to live with….it translates roughly to “I will never forgive you for this indignity!”
Patrick
My girlfriend and I had a cat (sadly passed) that the vet and techs routinely wore armored gauntlets to handle.
They all loved him anyway.
lurker
you MONSTER! how can you LIVE WITH YOURSELF AFTER DOING THAT TO ME!
–speaking for steve
(mr. ed voice in picture 2)
Wilbur, (pause), this is b*llsh*t
–also speaking for steve
for myself, i second the thought that he looks like a sweet little kitty all wet, which is probably his real reason for not liking the process – revealing a part of himself that makes him vulnerable ; – )
SteverinoCT
My short-hairs were sweet and mellow. One not only walked over some fresh white paint, she then lay down in it. She came home still wet, and I was able to cradle her over the sink and wash her off with warm water. She balked at dipping her paws, so I had to wash them off, too. That’s the extent of any bathing.
Westyny
In your sleep, John. He’s coming for you then.
StringOnAStick
We have a pair of sisters that look at lot like Steve. One loves to be combed, the harder the better; she’ll even help pull away when you snag a mat and loves it. She’s slightly brain damaged and a permanent kitten so maybe she sees the heavy combing as the replacement for the mom she lost at 2 weeks old. The other one is highly offended if you try to do any kind of grooming; fortunately her fur is much less prone to mats and has yet to have even a hint of one.
Wvng
So, John, are you still alive?
SWMBO
@JoyceH: https://balloon-juice.com/2016/12/25/let-me-tell-you-kids-about-the-legend-of-shitmas-2016/
Back in college, I groomed pets to pay my way. It is much easier to groom a cat and give it a bath if you have a frame with chicken wire or hardware cloth or whatever you have to use. Attach the mesh to the frame, add padding so it doesn’t scratch the tub, and put the cat on the mesh. Pull the tail just enough so that the claws engage with the mesh. As long as you hold the tail with some tension, you’re golden. (Keep your hands away from the mouth). It can be done by one person but two makes it a lot easier and faster.
Ruckus
Ornery Bastard, AKA Bud, was never allowed back at a groomers a second time. I had to learn how after I ran out of even not so local groomers. First bit of kit was a muzzle, which had to be installed very rapidly and forcefully. Second was figuring out how to hold him and trim at the same time, because if you didn’t, you’d pay. And that was with the muzzle. Also this had to be done once a month at least, because that guy could grow hair like no body’s business. Could have served him filet mignon every day if anyone would pay for a bushel of dog hair.
CaseyL
I bet Steve poses and preens for the camera when the groom is complete and he’s (even more) beautiful.
IOW, he loves the product, but not the process.