After losing Felicity to a combination of illness & fleas, I decided to get more active in the battle with the little bloodsuckers. So on Sunday, I flea-bombed my house and took Greymalkin & Nightshade over to Mom's for a bath while the fogging was going on.
Malkin's previous experience with a bath came about 6 years ago. My parents were visiting from NC & Mom decided the cats needed baths. She optimistically filled my kitchen sink with water and dunked Felicity first. Liss screamed, shot 6 ft up to the ceiling, landed back in the water and then went for Mom's throat. Mom still swears she was trying to escape over her shoulder- I saw the murderous look in Felicity's eyes and know better. You'd think the boy would have seen what was going on and fled, but silly Malkin sat there and watched. When his turn came, he thought playing dead would work so he went limp...unfortunately he did that AFTER Mom planted him in the sink, so he got scrubbed anyway.
He didn't go limp this time, but he was a lot more cooperative than I expected him to be. Mom had filled the tub with some warm water and I dropped him in. He froze at first, and then started half-heartedly trying to get away from me. We did ok until it was time to wash his head- we had a bit of panic then. But he survived and even enjoyed being blown dry.
Then it was Nightshade's turn. This was a little trickier. She still has all her claws and has no qualms about using them. I got slashed just stuffing her into the pet carrier for the ride over to Mom's. I went to the dollar store and picked up some oven mitts- we cut the fingertips off and slid them over our forearms for protection. This turned out to be the best idea I've had for some time. Since Shady went into the carrier fighting, I was afraid she'd come out the same way. I opened the door and she bolted- straight into the water, because I was smart enough to open the thing over the tub.
She didn't freak out as badly as we were afraid she would. Not at first, anyway. We splashed water gently over her and sudsed her up with the flea shampoo. She grumbled a little (Nightshade is a fairly talkative kitty), but was ok padding around the bottom of the tub and making the odd attempt at escape. Everything was fine until we turned the shower attachment on to rinse her off. I don't know if it was the sound of the thing, or just the indignity of being soaked further, but Nightshade FREAKED. This is where those oven mitt arm guards came in VERY handy.
Poor little kitty. She screamed as though we were poking her with hot irons and did her best to go over/around/through us to get away. We kept pushing her back into the water and finally decided we'd gotten her rinsed well enough and folded her into fluffy towels to be dried off. Since she runs when I blow MY hair dry, I decided it would probably be best not to try using the dryer on her. She lay in my arms, breathing heavily, but slowly began to relax as she realize the bath was over.
Mom had set up her spare room as a kitty sanctuary for them to relax in after the bathing process. After about an hour, Malkin was ready to come explore the apartment. He had a very good time poking around and having attention lavished on him. Shady, on the other hand, went under the bed and stayed there. She wouldn't come out to eat, even when I put a dish down less than a foot from the foot of the bed.
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