Woolly Cat, oh Woolly Cat!

 Here is a cat. A very woolly cat. Basking in the mid-November sun on a velvet sofa. It’s a hard life.

When he, Bambino Bobble Wilson, arrived chez nous, he was a spindly little spider of a kitten, who in no way hinted he was going to EXPLODE into the massive dollop of wool ‘n’ fluffiness that he has. We thought (fools that we were) that he would be a bog-standard domestic short-haired cat, black of colour (the most unpopular of cat colours, apparently, but suits me down to the ground, witch that I am), and sort of sleek and self-cleaning on the grooming front. 

What has transpired, in fact, is that Bambino is a long haired cat, with immensely thick woolly undercoat. He has a lion’s mane ruff. Massive, velvet paws with tufty inbetween toeses. He has a tail that is soooo thick it is hard to discern the presence of any tail bones. He isn’t wholly black, either. In certain lights, his fur is bluey-black - and burgundy and auburn and various shades of grey. However, he is VERY black on dark stairwells in the middle of the night. When he stands up from his recumbent poses, he leaves clumps of fur behind. When he has an attack of the zoomies he leaves clumps of fur behind. Seriously, I don’t know how he manages to be quite so productive on the fur front.

Anyway, because of this, we started brushing and combing him from a young age so that he would become used to the process. Thus, when he grows into an old gentleman cat and can no longer reach the parts he could when he was younger and more flexible, we can prevent him becoming all clogged and matted and turning into one of those poor creatures who ends up having to be shaved because they’ve become one massive and smelly felted rug. 

Bambino’s fur is resistant to many grooming tools. We’ve tried a variety over the years. Brushes, combs, rubber gloves covered in spikes. Lots of them just glide over the surface. To his credit, Bambino is 98% tolerant of our grooming attempts, and we’ve learned to recognise the signs of the occasional 2% when his tolerance is at snapping point. Mostly, we’ve avoided puncture wounds (to us - nothing is going to puncture Bambino because of his coat of furry armour) and bloodshed. 

Today, I went out on a Monday errand run (which, you’ll be thrilled to know, passed by without fuss or ado) and came back with this as part of my accumulated loot…

It’s proper sturdy! It has a three year guarantee against breakage! It is probably the most effective bit of Bambino grooming kit we’ve ever tried! (The eagle-eyed amongst you will notice, however, that one tine has already taken on a slightly wonky air…sigh…) 

Preliminary tests suggest Bambino likes it, and has given it an approval rating of 8.5 out of 10. He gave it a bit of a chew, which set my teeth on edge, but he purred when I gave it a trial wrench through his coat. We could be on to a winner.