My allergies started acting up late last week. I let it go for a few days, then Sunday I decided to give both cats a bath. I’m not allergic enough to cats for it to bother me normally, but when there’s something else I’m allergic to getting rid of pet dander (that’s on the cats) helps a bit.
I figured I’d start with Dash to get the painful one out of the way. It’s a good thing I’ve got sliding glass panels instead of a shower curtain in my shower, because otherwise I’d have had to use both hands to try to hold him and probably would have ended up with a large number of scratches. As it was, Dash was crying so loudly that I let him go without getting much of him wet (it was night and I didn’t want the neighbor coming to see what I was drowning).
At that point I went and caught Talore and stuck her in the tub. She cried a little bit (and Dash replied through the door), but she was pretty good about it like she used to be. When I was rinsing her I even tried using the shower head sprayer (which detaches and is on a hose) and she didn’t mind that nearly as much as me dumping water on her with a cup. When I opened the door to let a quite damp Talore out of the bathroom Dash was out of sight, but as Talore walked to the living room he came out to make sure she was ok.
I figured Dash not getting a bath wouldn’t be a problem since he doesn’t sleep on me and doesn’t sit in my lap while I’m reading. I wasn’t counting on him sleeping within two feet of my face last night. I woke up and couldn’t breath through my nose and I felt generally miserable. Dash got a bath today when I got home.
Actually, I guess it was more of a shower. He still spent the entire time pawing at the sliding glass panels (and had one partially opened, but he didn’t realize how he did that), but it was early evening so I wasn’t worried about anyone hearing since it wasn’t as quiet. I don’t think I used enough shampoo and his hair shed water pretty well, but I’m hoping it at least did some good. It probably didn’t improve his feelings on being picked up or held, but he let me follow him around brushing him, and it seems like he dried out faster than Talore does.
Anyways, since I haven’t posted in so long I’ve got a bunch of pictures:
Dash climbing the 2×6 we wrapped in sisal rope for him to climb:
The best of many blurry pictures of Dash carrying toys around:
First snow of the year (September 14th):
It rained all day the day I took the picture of the snow, but apparently it was cold enough for a short time and the snow blew into a sheltered spot on the back step of my house so it didn’t get washed off.