How to clean a Cat

“Cats are such ‘clean’ animals”, said by Cat people.  Not when they live on a farm.  Well, let me take that back, our barn cats look fairly clean, but then again, they live in the barn.  Our indoor (outdoor) cat is a fairly horrible cat (said even by ‘Cat’ people), but sigh… we do love her, and since we raised her from 10 days old, it is probably her poor parenting that has led her to be a fairly awful cat or the Damn Cat as she is mostly known.

However, we’ve been so pleased at how Billie Elliot, the indoor cat, has made the transition to farm life.  She spends a lot of the day outside, which was a good thing, until she fell in the pond.  She was one very unhappy cat and of course made straight for the house, ran around until she could be caught and dried off.  A wet cat is not a happy cat.

Two days ago I finally finished cleaning up the pantry closet moving items for storage to the attic.  A few trips up to the attic Billie Elliot accompanied me, but did little to help.  She decided to explore and there was little reason to not leave her there, or so I thought.  When Billie is inside, she prefers to be either on the kitchen table (which is gross, we eat there) or laying on our bed, getting up when one of us goes into the bathroom, as she prefers to drink fresh water out of the tap when we are washing our hands instead of the water left for her in her cute cat water bowl.  (The cute cat water bowl was a waste of money as the cat does not drink out of it.  The dogs will drink out of the cute cat water bowl, but then again, dogs will drink out of the toilet, if given the opportunity).

As I went into the bathroom, Billie came in for her drink leaving black paw prints everywhere she went.  Her spot, well not her spot on the bed, but the one she thinks is hers was black as well.  Our black & white calico was black & black.  I grabbed a towel, a wet wipe and the black & black cat and delivered her to our Cat person, My Loving Spouse for cleaning.  The cat was not co-operative (no big surprise) and was shut into the laundry room/bathroom for the night as she would ‘clean herself’.  In the morning she was a black & grey cat and still pretty dirty, getting most of her cleansing from sleeping on the clean white laundry, which of course was now grey as well.

It seems that from her adventure in the attic she got into the chimney area of the home and managed to cover herself in 100 years of soot.  Even after a day outside the Damn Cat is still dirty and unfortunately does not seem to be heading toward making the transition to Barn Cat.  The current discussion is that Billie will be getting a shower, which is a much nicer thought than throwing her back in the pond, which has been briefly considered.  My Loving Spouse is not currently playing any contact sports, so does not have the protection or support one might need to shower with a cat.  Perhaps the pond is not a bad idea after all…..