Feline grooming behaviour

Cute cat is a clean cat. As all cats, he was designed to keep himself clean through daily bouts of grooming behaviour, i.e. licking himself all over. His rough tongue is used as a brush, and sorts out all tangles in the fur, while the saliva cleans of fattyness and general dirt. It is rather amazing that cats spend 30-50% of their awake time cleaning themselves.

However, last week I thought that cute cat had a bit fatty fur, and also something dandruff-looking in it. He usually has a very very nice fur, so my report of his fatty/dandruffy fur is probably exaggerated. But I thought I had never washed him before, and I know sometimes it is necessary to wash your cat (if he has rolled in syrup etc.), so I thought it could be a good experience for him.

He was not happy about it. Not at all! He showed me that he still had a potential emitting those awful cries he had in his horny-period (before the... you know what... snip snip). I am glad he is not using them anymore, although I was rather surprised that he was still able to scream that loudly. I assumed his reduced testosterone-levels abolished the ability to deep dark loud screams, but I guess I was wrong. I couldn't finish giving him his bath myself actually. My sweet boyfriend rinsed him with water and added soap as I hold on to an ever more frustrated cute cat, trying to scratch his way out of my grip. Eventually I managed to soap him up, rinse the lather off, and sweap him in a warm and dry towel. But before long he managed to get out of the towel, and ran off, wanting to dry himself through the rather unusual drying-method of licking oneself. I continued trying to dry him, and off and on he let me, but he seemed to prefer taking care of business himself. I avoided laughing when he came out of the bath, but it was hard. Just look at him! How funny and sweet can one get?

However, it wasn't all that funny and sweet when I the following morning woke up at 5 am, from him throwing up a rather decently sized hairball. I guess licking your whole fur dry will cause mild to heavy unavoidable hair swallowing. Ick! I am so glad I am not a cat. Hair in mouth, blurk!