The semi-shaved cat

I must shamefully admit that we have failed to comb Rodin properly. 

When we got Rodin 1,5 year ago, Jan claimed that Maine Coons don't need to be combed as much like Persian cats because their fur would be more "wood cat/ wild cat" like or something. Well, he was wrong.

Now, you must know that I have a vivid memory of my Persian cat as a child. We adopted a 1 year old Persian cat when I was 7 years old. I received her in a box under the Christmas tree as a gift.  We had never had a cat before, and I had never seen a Persian adult cat before in my life.  The first look of the confused animal jumping out of his box was a bit intimidating but once I got over my initial fear I petted her and she felt weird.  She felt "bobbly"...full of bobbles in her skin.  But we didn't think much of it, maybe that was normal.   

Hmm a few days later our new cat was rolling over the floor and all of a sudden in a puddle of blood. Whaaa, panic, she had a big wound out of nothing in her neck... Turns out at the vet that she must have been bitten in her old house by the dog (that risk was exactly the reason why she had to leave) and had a wound invisible due to the fur that got infected.  Medication and care fixed that all, but the vet at that point told us there was additionally a serious issue with her fur that was not well maintained. The bobbles were not good and we urgently needed to comb out all tangles of fur, so her skin would be able to breathe again... A big combing mission was set up, but it was a mission impossible.  So mid January, somewhere in the coldest winters of the 80ies, our new cat was sedated and then entirely shaved except her big furry head and neck and the paws.  The sight of a shaved cat waking up out of sedation and bumping into furniture...well that's quite a sight you don't forget.  A shaved Persian cat with a big furry head and paws, that doesn't look like anything at all. 

But for the rest of her life, we maintained her on a disciplined weekly lengthy combing session and her fur grew back beautifully. 



So now I possess a Maine Coon, and we were all combing him now and then when someone thought of it and felt like doing it.  Not much structure in our habit, to be honest. Sometimes we discovered tangles, but until this spring it wasn't really an issue. Most fur tangles occur in Summer, when we allow Rodin to roam our garden on a leash. I guess the leash itself rubs a bit, and he always manages to return full of leaves and little sticks and other natural rubbish from the garden.  In Winter, we don't seem to need to comb him as much but as of May this year, he was continuously bringing in leaves and his fur was sticking together more and more.  And we tried to comb, but I didn't manage to get out the tangles, so I handed over to Jan etc.  But Rodin got upset during our attempts, so we'd retry the next day etc etc. 
With my childhood memory in mind, I got worried that there were a dozen of big tangled spots that we simply didn't manage to comb out anymore.  With a bit of shame we contacted the vet, who kept him in order to sedate and comb/shave him.   Whaaaaaoo childhood memories came back.  

Fortunately we didn't get an entirely shaved cat back, but both his back legs and his belly got a good shave and we got a good bill. Ouch. 

Since then, we've hardly allowed him to go outside. And everybody in the house is chasing Rodin dutifully with combs.  And yet, even now, some tangles are popping up nevertheless. Maybe he has much thicker fur than he had last summer when he was still a toddler?  Anyhow, we are now searching a good discipline to have a fixed rhythm, to verify his entire body and to use good combs etc.   I'm also a little relieved that my colleague with 2 Maine Coons admits that she can't always stay on top of it either and that sometimes they cut out a little cloth with a hair clipper.