Not just for Fancy Pants!

It's my firm belief that all cats benefit from professional grooming. Most people seem comfortable with the fact that long hair cats and purebred cats need regular grooming, but really, short hairs, medium hairs, thick coated, silky coats and everything in between...they all need regular human based grooming. I say human based, because really, cats are just so lazy about using combs and shampoo!

oh hai there

Iiiii'm a short hair and I have mats!

ouch. mats and dirty, oily hair

oh, I'm shedding too, can you see it?

he-llooo ladies!

Personal Critique:

still a bit oily on the chest/neck

see the separation?

Darn it all  -  I hate not being perfect!!

Minor "bad groomer" imperfection aside,

check it out - mats removed

NO clipping needed!

Just a small bare spot that will grow in quickly

and is barely noticeable when he's not being stretched out for a picture

not perfect? How dare you!

Can I go home now?

I groom a number of short haired cats. You may remember Lexus from my last post. The main reason short coated cats come to me for professional grooming is shedding. Of course, once you feel a cat that's been groomed by a Master Feline Groomer, you'll never want to go back to that oily, chalky feeling kitty! 

Groom Him!

The other day one of my co-workers carried a cat back to my grooming closet and said, "This is Bubba, he's getting groomed."

Uhhhhhhh...ok. I'm the cat groomer. He's a cat. A very handsome British Blue, with a short coat, no signs of matting, excess shedding, dandruff or grease. Other than being a bit oily, he looked in good shape. This assessment didn't help me deduce what kind of grooming was wanted.

"Okay, how?" I asked. "What does his owner want?" I thought this was a reasonable question to ask, and expected to get a response like, oh, they want a good bath and comb out. Or, a lion clip. Something.

So after a blank look, ("you know, groomed!"), a shrug and a "I'd better go find out!", she came back with the news Bubba was to get a bath and comb out.

I guess to some people that may be obvious. Short hair cat. Gets bath. Duh. But just because a cat has short hair, doesn't mean his owners want "just a bath". (Boy do I hate that phrase! I do so much more than "just a bath"!)

Meet Lexus. She's a wonderful Domestic Short Hair. I love grooming her, she's very sweet and agreeable. And she makes great o.O faces. When Lexus comes to visit me we do one of three things:

Lexus! This is more of a 0.0 face

Between Grooming Nail Trim and De Shed. This is exactly what it sounds like. Between regular grooming appointments (usually about 4-6 weeks) I trim her nails and use my Romani shedding rake. It's great - attached to a Clipper Vac it easily and effiecently removes excess hair. Instead of having to comb and comb and comb, and brush and brush and brush, and then comb and comb and comb again, getting covered in hair in the process, I just run the rake through her coat and it's sucked away! Love it!

The benefit here is that (1) the nails get trimmed, protecting furniture and carpets from being clawed up, (2) any shedding hair is removed. Makes it more worthwhile to load up the cat and drive out. Plus it cuts down on the potential for hairballs, or an unwelcomed layer of cat hair on everything. And (3) it's inexpensive. It's a quick freshen up for kitty that makes the both of you feel good but only costs a little bit.

after a comb through and de shed

Bath, Comb Out and De Shed. During the winter and spring Lexus stays in coat. It's important to keep up with her grooming though. She still sheds like crazy, and she needs to have the body oils removed, so she's not a greasy mess. Short hair cats are also prone to matting! It makes a huge difference - a thorough bath, blow dry and then the Vac de shedding treatment. Her owner reports there is much less vacuuming after this!

soft, silky and sassy!

Lion Clip. Yup! Short Hair cats can get lion clips too! In the summer, Lexus sometimes gets a lion clip to help her stay cool and comfy. This is the ultimate low maintenance 'do and is great for summer time, which can be especially busy with vacations, travel and long evenings on the porch sipping lemonade. (Ok, it's chilly and raining right now. I may be day dreaming a bit!)

So there you have it. One cat, three different grooms. I always prefer to talk to the kitty's owner when they drop off, that way I know what they want, or what problems they have with their cat, so I can offer solutions they may not even know they have! How wonderful to go from thinking your excessively shedding cat HAS to be shaved to knowing you can have a good bath and de shed, keep your cat in coat and not have the problem of shedding hair!

Plus, as a Certified Feline Creative Groomer, sometimes "do whatever you want" might turn into this:

Mr Toes, a Domestic Short Hair gets swallowed by a shark,

a direct result of my brother telling me "you can do whatever you want to him"

Thanks Kevin!!!

Spots or Not

I love Siberians. They're big, sturdy cats with big paws. They're triple coated. They're beautiful, have tons of personality and are lots of fun! JD is a gorgeous Siberian that I had groomed quite awhile ago, somewhere else. I missed him, and hoped he would find me at my new job.

And he did!

And boy, is it a good thing!

one big, greasy, oily cat

JD's owners take good care of him, including trying to have him professionally groomed to keep him in tip top shape. In fact, the first time I met JD was several years ago at a different job. We both get around! It stuck in my mind because I didn't get to groom him - but I was confused by the breed Siberian on the schedule and the lack of Husky dogs in the shop. I didn't even know there were Siberian cats!

curiosity doesn't kill the cat - just the clarity of the picture!

JD actually stopped being professionally groomed for a time. Why? Because his owners didn't see the point in paying for professional grooming when their cat didn't look any better afterwards. I totally agree with them. But this is a topic for another day. And believe me, I have a lot to say on the subject! 

Because JD's owner and I have a mutual friend who knew I was into cat grooming, and then completed the NCGIA's school for cat grooming and became both a CFMG and a CFCG, they ended up bringing JD to me. For not being professionally groomed in awhile, or maybe I should say properly groomed in ever, JD was in ok condition. Oily as anything, but without mats or tangles. Same as when he came to see me recently. 

that separation is a clear sign of a greasy cat

he actually looks slick to the touch (and he was!)

As you might expect I was just as able to transform JD this time as I was last year. He went from a oily, lank haired, chunky coated, slightly discolored greaseball into a beautiful cat you couldn't wait to touch and snuggle with. And in the process, something very interesting happened.

what a difference a bath and blow dry make!

Can you guess what it is? Is it that he's relaxed enough to stay in (soft) focus? Is it the the silky smooth flow to his coat? Is it that his whites are white instead of a dingy off white/off yellow?

Spots!!!!

That's right! I was able to change his indistinct, smudged coat non pattern into clear spots and bars. How cool is that?

mackeral stripes on the side, spots up top

Neat, huh? I had completely forgotten about his spots. I was thrilled to see such a clear pattern show up. It's one of the things that makes grooming cats so dang interesting. I was ecstatic to see JD again and beyond thrilled to be able to change his appearance so drastically. Also, let me point out that the banner for The Finical Feline features a Siberian, Sunny, who I believe is JD's brother or half brother!

It should be noted that it is correct for Siberians to be more coarse coated and oily. They should have a "weather resistant" coat and their standard penalizes a coat too soft, fluffy or silky. American Sibs, I think, tend to not be as concerned about preserving proper texture as we should. The FIFe breed standard addresses this more than I saw in the TICA or CFA standards. Which makes sense, since this is a Russian cat. I would also like to note that JD's hair is appropriately textured. Good bathing simply removes the 'weatherproofing'. He's a house cat. A pet. He should be clean, so that he can be enjoyable to his people and honestly, more suitable to his environment.

which would you rather live with

oily or clean?

chunky or flowing?

spots...or not?

With a Twist

Recently my friend asked me to groom her cat. Harry is a Domestic Medium Hair that was found in a dumpster, with his brother Ron, at about 6 or so weeks old. I don't remember the story, but somehow they ended up living with my friend as "first cats". They've been quite the pair! But she loves 'em.

Anyway, Harry gets hot in the summer and lives in a non air conditioned home. So this year we decided to put him in a lion clip to help him stay cool. My friend knew she wanted to do this, and should do it, for Harry's sake, but she wasn't sure if she would like how it would look. And because she's my friend and we once cut class together, I figured I could do something special.

 staring longingly at the hung up smocks

You know, something fun to distract her, just in case she didn't like his new look. Something she would enjoy, even if she did like the lion clip. Something that would be fun for me to try.

Something...interesting!

neat!

I have always wanted to try doing a ribbon tail. I *love* how it looks! It's harder than I thought, and I had anticipated it being tricky. Very happy I finally got to try it out. Lots of practice and perfecting still needed!  Harry could take it or leave it.

meh. Leave it.

His owner ended up loving his new 'do', but she especially liked his fancy new tail! She was happy, I was happy, and Harry...well, Harry will be more comfortable this summer. Despite being a Very Good Kitty, he didn't much care for being groomed. He thought snuggling into the smocks hanging next to the table would be way better.

one more. Because it is so cool looking!

I just have to add this comment Harry's owner left me: 

so i just had to leave you a note and tell you how much happier Harry is lately! He's been acting like a different cat and I think it has something to do with his new do! (can we shave Ron down too....? lol)

Happy cats. Happy owners. It's what I do!

Lovely Day!

Now that the crazy storms have passed, we're being treated to some beautiful Spring weather. It's been cool, with enough sun to warm things up, some breezes and some puffy clouds for fun.

My work day matched that. My first cat was absolutely adorable! My second cat was a big bruiser of a Himalayan. Both went home looking beautiful and their owners were thrilled. I love delighting cat owners with a perfectly groomed cat. Their cat!

Pictures of both to come soon. My camera is frustrating. While it can take very nice pictures, and has many settings to ensure you can take very nice pictures, it has so many, very precise, settings that I'm pretty much guaranteed to be using it wrong! My grooming space is actually a closet, and seems to throw an amber cast when photographing in it. You may have noticed...

Tomorrow I'm grooming my own kitty (finally!), that's her above. Plus I have a wonderful Domestic Short Hair ready for her summertime shave. This afternoon I got a message from a friend saying she wants to get her cat trimmed, would that be something I would be interested in? Would it ever! I truly love grooming cats. I'm so lucky to have found great teachers, great friends and great clients to be able to turn something I love doing into a career!

Settling In

So I wrote a post about how it's hard to start at a new place, whether an established grooming salon or a new business. It's hard to figure out what to say, how to interact with your co workers and your customers. How everything feels a little fake, kinda like a bad 80s sitcom. Then I tried to explain New Job's usual grooming procedures and how I didn't like them, and why.

It got all complicated and whiny. So I deleted it. I'll probably hit on certain parts of it later, since it's interesting to see how different businesses do things. But not today. Today it just sounds like The New Girl Whining.

This is Mittens. He was my first cat at New Job. He was greasy, dandruff-y and somewhat matted. And greasy. And gross. He smelled bad. He had huge flakes of dandruff just sitting on his coat. And he was really greasy. You didn't want to touch him. You can actually see the clumping coat (from grease and mats) and the dandruff flakes in this picture.

And he lived in someones house. He slept in their bed. He laid on their sofa. Someone loves Mittens. Sure, he's a really nice cat. Friendly, gentle personality. Probably a great companion for his people. But he was also a smelly, greasy, flaky, gross beast.

But they did the right thing and brought him to me to be groomed. I did a Full Belly and Sanitary Clip. I removed the mats. I bathed him 4 times with a degreasing shampoo. A fifth bath with a mild texturizing shampoo. I blew him dry with my beloved Chris Christensen HV dryer. I became covered in dandruff flakes. I trimmed his very long, very thick, very sharp nails and cleaned his waxy ears. I did my final comb through and sent home a handsome cat! Soft and shiny, he smelled pleasant, was silky to the touch, and mat and flake free.

Was Mittens perfect? Unfortunately, no. He had some bare spots from the mats. They'll grow back. He still had some dandruff flakes here and there. His coat wasn't quite as flowing and lovely as it could be. Was he a million times better than when he came in? Oh yeah! Will he look better - the way I *want* him to look - after his next groom? Possibly. If his owners wait and allow him to get as gross as he had been, no, he won't. If his people bring him in before that happens, he'll have a fighting chance. If they bring him in on a regular basis, the correct time frame of 6 - 8 weeks for a long coated cat kept in full coat, he'll improve even more. He'll be perfect. Shiny, flowing coat that is silky to the touch. Healthy, flakeless skin. No excess grease or "chalkiness".

I really hope Mittens becomes a regular. He's a very handsome cat. He's enjoyable to work with. I know his owners love him. I also know he's a big part of their life, and their home. And just like you want your furniture, floors and bedding to be clean and fresh smelling, you want your cat (who will be on all of those things!) to be clean and fresh smelling as well.

That is entirely obtainable with a regular grooming program with a Certified Feline Master Groomer, such as myself! The best part is, you don't even need to do anything at home. Just enjoy your cat and leave the rest to me.

Mittens Before: Greasy, clumpy, kinda Icky!

Mittens After: Soft, silky, touchable!

So Far, So Good

So I've been at my new job for a couple of weeks now, and I'm happy to say it's going really well! I'm working on establishing a routine that works for me. I'm doing things a little differently than how other groomers have done things, but I think it's working out!

That's Hank. He's one of my favorite cats to groom. Shy, but super sweet. I'll tell you Hank's story sometime soon. But for now I need to go and bathe my own cat! She's looking kinda grungy.