Pat wrote:
"Christina Websell" wrote

Any ideas for caring for the coat of a very old cat without
distressing us both by bathing her? I'm not really up for being
slashed to pieces which is definitely on the cards if I attempt to
put her in water.

Cats naturally dislike being wet and being forced to do anything, so
the trick to bathing them is to make it pleasurable to them, or at
least not unpleasant. That means, make the way you handle the cat
into a show of affection, and don't scare them with the water.

You might try this... one time only... see how it goes. I think if
you're sensitive and know your kitty well, it just might work. I have
been able to bath almost any reluctant cat this way without being
harmed:
First of all you must be in the bathtub *with* the cat... Bring her
into the bathroom with you and close the door. Sit there (outside the
tub) with her while you run about five gallons of warm water into the
tub. Hang up your clothes and put a couple of large bath towels on
the floor ready to grab, then pick up kitty and hold her like a baby
as you step into the tub and slowly sit down. At this stage kitty has
no idea there is even water in the tub. The water needs to be off
while you are getting in and sitting down.
Once you are settled into the tub holding kitty, let her tail dangle
into the water a bit. If she doesn't start tearing you to pieces then
slowly let her back feet get wet. Ideally you would be sitting
cross-legged in the low end of the tub with some little bit of water
under your legs, and you set kitty down in that opening in your lap
where the warm water is just about half an inch deep.

If this works out well, then just play it by ear, grab a handful of
water in one hand and hold the scruff of kitty's neck in the other
just to steady her as you gently release a little water on her back
and rub it in.
Keep this up until the kitty is wet to the skin all over with warm
water. If you can run more water slowly and quietly into the tub
without scaring her, it helps, to keep the water nice and warm, which
cats like. The shampoo will penetrate better and be easier to spread
around if the cat is already completely wet, too.

Don't go on to the shampooing stage unless you're sure you can keep
control of the cat. It's pretty easy if you've gone really slow up to
that stage and have not let kitty become spooked. If she is a little
bit spooked, you can calm her down by talking softly and gently to
her and holding the scruff of her neck with one hand and rubbing her
with the other hand (working in the shampoo).

The end stage is the hardest, you must drain the tub and then pour
fresh warm water over the kitty to rinse out the soap. Ideally you
would have a couple of one-gallon plastic jugs already filled with
warm water and sitting within easy reach of your free hand.

Finally, after kitty is well rinses, pick her up and stand up in the
tub, squeeze the excess water out of her legs and tail, then set her
on one of the towels, still holding the scruff of her neck, and grab
the other towel and toss it over her back, then rub her dry.


And I always thought the cat-in-the-commode with a squirt of shampoo method
worked best.