It Was a Kitty Kind of Saturday

I'm just warning any of you reading this that some of this is unintentionally gross so if you have a bit of a weak stomach you may not want to read any further {it's not that bad, but I'm just warning you in case}. Well Saturday Ian and I had to do the inevitable as we finally started feeling really bad for Bella. She is mostly Maine Coon so she inevitably has really long hair with an undercoat that mats real easily. We both try to brush her as often as possible, but she's a brush me once and leave kind of cat. She's not a big fan of the brush plus its also a scorching Summer so she's shedding like crazy. She had gotten to the point where it was time to do something about it. We got in the car Saturday morning and first drove to Target to get some Benadryl to cut in half and put in some wet food for her to calm her down a bit {a vet recommended this to a friend for her cat so this is where I got the idea}. We then drove to Petsmart to get some kitty shampoo and look for a better brush or comb for her thick long hair. Alas, we found a fine tooth comb made for long hair and mats, paid and headed home for what we were absolutely dreading {Bella gets really anxious when we try to bathe her or cut mats out}.

So we got home and I went into the upstairs bathroom to smash up half the benadryl into her wet food along with putting together the other wet food for Bug and Lily because had I stayed out in the open for them to watch me I would have gotten bombarded with meowing and jumping on the counter and well if your a furmama you know the drill. So I finally brought all the food downstairs gave the two their food and then Bella hers. She instantly knew after one lick that something was in it and completely didn't want the food. She knew! Epic fail on our part so instead we decided to get it done without anything to calm her down. I filled the bathtub with a little water got in it with my clothes on {in case she decided to start scratching} and had Ian bring her into the bathroom and shut the door. We let her relax for a bit and then Ian put her in the tub with me. She meowed for a little bit and got a smidge crazy, but after a while she calmed down. I had to literally massage some shampoo on her fur then carefully brush her, then cut, brush, then cut, repeatedly until all her mats were out. I feel so bad doing this, but its the only way and I won't bring her to anyone because I wouldn't wish my cat freaking out on someone even on my worst enemy {she has nails} and plus I won't do that to her.

Sorry for the bad pic. Ian just snapped it quickly for me when we were done, but you get the idea. Look at all that fur! And, yes she has plenty left. So after about a half an hour of doing this she had a bald looking behind and back, but was 95% mat free. I was so happy that after awhile she actually chilled out a bit and Ian had to hardly hold her. There was also a sweet moment where she started licking me during the process and talking to me. She's such a sweet baby and even in the craziest and most stressful moments she knows her mama is just trying to help. Now I know she's happy that she doesn't have all the matting anymore. The moral to the story is this is ultimately what I spent my entire Saturday doing, but I also wanted to share with you all the best comb for getting mats out of long fur that I think is out there. Its amazing, helped so much, and Bella didn't even seem to mind it. So for any of you furmama's out there this is the comb to get if your in the same situation I am. It probably also works well on long haired dogs.

It's from the Martha Stewart pet line at Petsmart. I have been really pleased with everything I've gotten from her line so far. I think it was $8 with my Petsmart card which was absolutely cheaper then the other options I saw at the store. I really recommend this comb. 

With this story you know I had to also share the latest and greatest pics of the furbabies. 

Lily mid-nap! She's so angelic looking, but don't let yourself be fooled, she's Ms. Sassy Pants.

My baby boy lounging on his now favorite 'easy to clean' rug. 

Bella in her favorite spot. She loves laying around being a lazy bum.

Sorry again if you found this post a tad gross in the beginning, but I had to share my adventure and the comb! Hope you have a great Monday. xoxo, Kayleigh.