Bath Time

My friend Tricia (who does not know cats) asked me recently if cats need to have regular baths like dogs. A fair question and I replied no, unless they become particularly dirty for some reason...

This reminded me of Casper’s adventure in the basement ceiling on Boxing Day 2008. We were off to spend the day in Hamilton with Robert’s family but before we left the house I could not find Casper anywhere. This is back when there was only Casper and Molly, so I was hard-pressed to lose a cat. Molly was in her room of course but Casper had vanished into thin air. I don’t like going out when I haven’t accounted for all the cats, because I never know if one of them has slipped into a closet when I wasn’t looking and become shut in. After ages of hunting for Casper we had to set off or we wouldn’t make it on time. When we returned late that evening, Casper had reemerged, but he was filthy! His snow white coat, his paws and even the tips of his ears were all grey. We could not figure out where he had been to get so sooty and dusty. We were exhausted after several days of Christmas activities, so we left him as he was and went to bed. First thing the next morning though we went out to buy the special cat shampoo and gave Casper his one and only bath (to date).

Casper the Grey

Robert held him in the kitchen sink and I worked fast to lather him up and rinse him off before he went crazy. But Casper is such a gentle soul, there was no “crazy” and he just stood quiet and still in the sink only letting out one plaintive meow when he first got wet. After the bath we toweled him off, and then we got out his brush and the hairdryer. He LOVED the warm air from the hairdryer and lay happily purring on his towel while he was brushed and styled. He looked great after his bath, he is already a handsome cat but his fur was amazingly soft and fluffy. Robert and I were pretty proud of ourselves that the bath had worked out so well (even though it was Casper’s good behaviour which made it easy) but we didn’t really want a repeat performance. That’s why the next day when Casper showed up grey AGAIN he did not get a second bath. I didn’t think another bath so soon would be good for his skin, so he just got a vigorous toweling and brushing to try and get the dust off him, but I did try to wipe his ears at least with damp tissues. It wasn’t until later that day when I saw Casper jump off the top of the furnace that we realized what had happened.

Fluff  'n Fold

We have a finished basement, but unfortunately the furnace and its piping cannot be closed off so they are exposed against one wall downstairs. While trying to rearrange the basement to get maximum space for Christmas guests, I had moved some storage boxes beside the furnace. This made a nice ladder for Casper to climb up to the top of the furnace then tightrope walk across a pipe to an access hole in the corner of the ceiling behind the water heater (I’m afraid I don’t dust up there so Casper’s footprints were left as evidence of his route). Then he hopped up into the space between the drywall ceiling and the exposed beams of the floor above. I cringe to think that he probably spent hours walking around exploring in the ceiling amid years of accumulated dust and yuck! Once we discovered his secret, we put an immediate stop to his fun. The boxes were moved elsewhere and chicken wire was wrapped around the water heater and the access hole. To this day Casper still stands in the basement hall and gazes up at the ceiling meowing longingly. I know he is reliving his Christmas adventure and would be back up there in a second if he could. When I see him doing this I usually walk up to him and point accusingly at him and make my angry face (what a dork). You must remember that Casper is deaf therefore saying a firm “no” or clapping hands to get him to stop an unwanted behaviour is useless. I have to improvise and find some other way to let him know I am unhappy so the reproachful pointing while making a stern face and trying to tower over him menacingly usually makes him skulk off with his tail down. That little monkey knows he shouldn’t have been in the ceiling in the first place but I can never stay mad at him for long  :-)

Beautiful Again