Wednesday, October 22, 2008

Cruel and Unusual Punishment

Since I've been so obsessed with cats lately (scroll down to former entries to see why), I figured it was only natural for me to have a Sincerely Fro' Me To You that featured cats again this week. Hey, I don't have kids of my own. This is what I have to work with, people.

Anyway, my first cat ever was Tippy:


Tippy had been a shelter cat and was sweet and adorable. I think she had been named Tippy because she only had a tip of a tail; she was a Manx mix.

Tippy also had major attitude.



And didn't care who knew it. She was one you definitely didn't mess with. Grrrr...



Tippy was also quite a large, fluffy cat.



She didn't mind her girth, though. Heck, she'd even flaunt it!


The problem, however, was that she was so big, and so fluffy, that her, um, backside would get quite dirty, since "stuff" would stick in her long hair and she was too wide to be able to reach around all the way and clean it. She also wouldn't let me near the "sensitive" area. So on occasion, I would take her to get (and I swear this is what it's called) a "pantie shave."

This entailed me taking Tippy to the vet and then having them shave her backside. Sounds quick and easy, but it actually entailed them having to give her a mild sedative, and she would still scream the entire time. I tried to do this as seldom as possible, but let's face it, sometimes I just couldn't handle her walking around with dingleberries stuck to her patootie, and she wasn't about to let me near her derriere.

Now imagine that it's summertime. On the second floor of an apartment that gets full sun all day. With no air conditioning. Tippy would positively wilt. I would find her on the bathroom tiles trying to find a small piece of coolness. I couldn't let her suffer. So when I went to the vet for a routine pantie shave and asked if they could trim some of the fur off the rest of her, they suggested a "lion cut." They told me it was what they did to a lot of cats in the summer. Somehow, I thought this would be a good idea.



Yes, folks, that's exactly what it looks like. They shaved every piece of hair off my poor cat except for her face and feet. I never realized that cats' skin is the same color as their fur, so I was quite surprised to see what looked like a horrible, flesh-eating skin disease taking over my cat's body.

She actually looked really sick. I almost cried when I saw her. I came to realize, though, that she wasn't so much sick as simply humiliated. She couldn't even bear to look at the camera.


I only did this to Tippy once, but I don't think she ever forgave me. I think she actually would rather have sweltered in the heat than have to put up with this humiliation. When I gave her to one of my students (since I was moving to Colombia and couldn't take her with me) I think she actually breathed a sigh of relief.

Please don't report me to the SPCA.

For more cruel and unusual punishment captured on film, (mostly performed by the victims on themselves), head over to We Are That Family.

7 comments:

heidi said...

Oh no!!! LOL Poor Tippy!!!! LOL

Dawn @ simply transparent said...

now this is a reason to call those pet people on you!

LOL! ;D

very very funny but seriosly how did you get her to be still?!

Kristen said...

Say it ain't so! Poor Tippy.

It's the fluffiest and baldest cat, all wrapped up in one post!

littletoesandcheerios said...

Bless it's little kitty heart.

Anonymous said...

Ok, seriously... those are some of the best cat pictures I have seen. Her emotions really show.

Crayl said...

That poor cat! How embarrassing! Why would a vet do that? Yikes.

a Tonggu Momma said...

Some of our close friends have a cat named Oliver who is so fat, he also is... umm... not too adept at grooming himself. They used baby wipes. And I laughed.