The day the fur flew

Magic LOVES having her coat combed through with the furminator. She goes into raptures and often when you pass the bathroom, there she is sitting in the bath with her little face just inviting you to pop in and give her coat a going over. She is a short haired cat and the grooming is more for her pleasure than an essential.

For Red the opposite is the case. He sheds fine, fine, soft hair absolutely everywhere. There is no controlling it and the house, humans and furniture are all becoming furrier by the day. I am utterly demented and keep Lakeland's profits up from all the sticky mitts I buy. I have them all over the house, in my briefcases, glove compartment and desk drawer at work.

Red takes good care of his coat and rarely has tangles but the reality is that there is just so much fur he cannot handle it and yaks up quite a few furballs. The would lead you to suspect, like me, that the time had come to finally persuade him to cope with being brushed. He has never taken to being brushed and hates it. I've bought every hair removal device I can think of and all to no avail. I have two sizes of furminator, a zoom groom, a rubber cat mitt, cat combs, a nit comb, one of my old hairbrushes and not one will he tolerate. Being a fairly tolerant boy he allows you two strokes of whatever device you have and then sinks his teeth into your wrist. I'd struggle to say he is biting to do damage as he is not that ill tempered instead it is more a warning delivered with his teeth.

So one night I decided enough was enough and I was going to finally take a hard line on the grooming. Normally Magic wont let him near her but as she goes semi-delirious when being groomed I reckoned she might not notice him watchng her as she lolled about the bath. This would then, I hoped, persuade him that it was a good thing as normally he copies all her behaviours and I've not had to teach him much because he just follows her. I use the bath because it is easier to clean but I've tried Red in other locations and he still wont play ball so I reckoned it might as well be the bath ths time.

Anyway they say a picture is worth a thousand words and these definitely tell the tale. Magic loved it and couldnt get enough. In fact there is nearly enough fur combed off to make a clone of her. I only got a few swipes at Red when it was his turn before I decided his teeth sinking was sorer than I could cope with. Or to put it another way, I decided to see it from Red's point of view - that it was not worth continuing with as neither of us was enjoying it. So all I got off of him was the equivalent of a little ginger moustache. I also dont have a pic of Red actually in the bath as he didn't hang about.