<p>Re: shaving a cat. I have two long haired cats. There was fur everywhere. Teddy was barfing up hairballs every day. Tiger, who doesn’t clean himself well, had matted fur and they both were getting you-know in what I call their pants (poopy-pants!). So first I started taking them to the dog groomer for sanitary cuts. They clipped the pants and tummies. That helped with the poopy-pants but the barfing continued. Then one brave day we went for it and got barfy Teddy clipped all over - a lion cut so to speak. He looked funny but he actually liked having less fur. The daily vacuuming was better. The barfing continued. Teddy was now cleaning Tiger. So Tiger went to the groomer’s and got a haircut too. We were all happy then. Tiger was happy to have no more mats. I was happy to stop constantly vacuuming. Teddy almost stopped barfing. (I later changed his food and all barfing has stopped.) My next step was to buy my own clippers. It was fairly traumatic for Tiger especially (my scaredy-cat) to go to the groomer’s but also for Teddy. I also realized I was spending more on their haircuts than my own so I did it - for the price of one haircut I bought some clippers. Now the first haircut was hilariously bad but Teddy tolerated it well. Tiger was terriified of the clippers. The first two times I had to hug him to my waist and try to clip around my arm while he tried to bolt at every opportunity. But we finally got a system and sometimes they even get pretty good looking haircuts. But its funny how much they like not having the extra fur. I clip them about every 6 weeks - just like any man/boy would do. Year round - but we don’t have to worry about the cold so much in Calif.</p>
<p>
How can you tell? (Really, how?) My two guys have very long hair and I like to think they would be mortified to have to go around without their lovely locks–though I don’t know how now I could tell how they felt about it!</p>
<p>Colonel Meow would definitely disapprove of any kitty haircuts!</p>
<p>[Colonel</a> Meow, Internet Cat Legend, Wins ‘World’s Hairiest Cat,’ A Guinness World Record (PHOTOS, VIDEO)](<a href=“Colonel Meow, Internet Cat Legend, Wins 'World's Hairiest Cat,' A Guinness World Record (PHOTOS, VIDEO) | HuffPost Weird News”>Colonel Meow, Internet Cat Legend, Wins 'World's Hairiest Cat,' A Guinness World Record (PHOTOS, VIDEO) | HuffPost Weird News)</p>
<p>One of my cats mats a lot. I used to shave my cats ( Maine Coons ) in the summer because I simply did not have the time to vaccuum as much as I needed to. My boy who is now 10 seemed mortified when he was shaved , but I can tell how grateful he is when I shave his mats off now. He isn’t pleased when it happens , but he always come purring and head butting when the painful mats are gone</p>
<p>When we took our Himalayan into get groomed, we were a little unsure of how he would react to it. We decided to get a sanitary cut and a belly shave, the former for obvious reasons and the latter because he really hates to have his stomach brushed and it’s a horrible process for everyone involved. </p>
<p>Based on his demeanor I would say he was at worst indifferent. Even after the stress of going to the groomer he was sprawling out belly up by that night. He was also grooming his stomach and hind parts more now that he wasn’t getting mouthfuls of hair in the process. Getting his belly shaved is so much less stressful than attempting to groom it.</p>
<p>S came home from two years in China just yesterday and brought 2 cats home with him - and a girlfriend to boot!!
I’m sure countless hundreds of yuans were spent in securing their safe passage home. Very active kitties. One has a distinctively bent tail tip - apparently common among Siamese and other Asian cats. Who knew!</p>
<p>Whew, I’m glad my cat is a domestic short hair. We do get the occasional hair ball, but I’m going to investigate some of these remedies.</p>
<p>How do you tell when a cat is happy? He purrs and wants to cuddle and purrs some more. They love being petted on their very short fur. They seem happy. They don’t hide when I take the clippers out. Not sure how else to describe happiness in a cat. They seem to really like being petted where there is less fur.</p>
<p>I thought they would be mad and mortified too. They seem as proud of their lopsided haircuts as they are of themselves in general. Teddy is especially vain. But I don’t even attempt to shave around their neck or head - or their tails. So they still have magnificent manes and fluffy tails to wave around happily.</p>
<p>woody - I wonder if they speak English :)</p>
<p>“S came home from two years in China just yesterday and brought 2 cats home with him - and a girlfriend to boot!!”</p>
<p>Not sure about any boyfriends, but one thing is a given - D will be coming home with 2 cats in a year or so… and countless tenge will be spent on their transportation. 
D says her cats speak fluent Canopener.</p>
<p>I think they’re born with it! :)</p>
<p>I love my kitty! She’s a 13 year old tortoise shell named Tosky. My son who was 5 at the time named her Tosky Wosky for some unknown reason. We got her when she was 8 weeks old at PetSmart. My only criteria was that the cat be female and short haired. She’s in good health and has been indoor all her life. When she was nine she had hyperthyroidism and received radioactive iodine treatment which cured her but cost quite a bit. One thing I notice now is that she has some dandruff. The vet suggested Vitamin E but that didn’t seem to help. I do try to brush her more often which she loves.</p>
<p>I was reading an article about cat body language. It says that when a cat looks at you, then slowly closes her eyes, and opens them again, that is a clue that she is happy and has trust in you. The article said to do it back to them and it makes them quite content. I started doing that, and Kitty seems happy, but she hasn’t actually told me so. :)</p>
<p>Crazy cat ladies unite!</p>
<p>Hi, just found this thread. I have 3 cats, one is 12, is is 13 and the other is 6 months… but I have a question. Our kitten seems to be VERY large for his age (not fat at all, trust me I know what a fat cat looks like) he weighs 7 pounds already. How big do you think he’ll be when he’s older?</p>
<p>He’s a short hair tabby cat. He came from a large feral cat colony in a rural area in VT. He’s very active, I’d give him a body scale of 3 on this [Body</a> Condition Scoring Chart | College of Veterinary Medicine](<a href=“http://vet.osu.edu/vmc/body-condition-scoring-chart]Body”>http://vet.osu.edu/vmc/body-condition-scoring-chart) . Any thoughts?</p>
<p>How sure are you that he’s 6 months?</p>
<p>The shelter we adopted him from said he was 8 weeks when we adopted him (on Mother’s day), and then we had the veterinarian check him out, she also said he was about 8 weeks when we adopted him. So he’s actually more like 5 months. Also, his adult upper fangs are just coming in, not sure if that’s late or early.</p>
<p>I don’t know that either, but if you’re concerned, you could always run him in to the vet. Is he otherwise healthy? Maybe he’s just a big boy.</p>
<p>Your kitten might part or pure Maine Coon Cat. They grow into big cats and it takes 2 years (sometimes more) before they reach their full growth. 7 pounds is not unusual for 5-6 month old male.</p>
<p>[Maine</a> Coon - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia](<a href=“http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Maine_Coon]Maine”>Maine Coon - Wikipedia)</p>
<p>I adopted a ~6 month old kitten from a shelter who according to my vet is full or nearly full Maine Coon. He finally stopped growing at age 3 and currently weighs in at 16-17 lbs. He’s very cuddly and my lap cat.</p>
<p>I’d venture to guess our Little Dug was probably about 7 pounds or so at six months. He was almost as big as the other, fully grown cat at that age, but thinner. </p>
<p>He’s 14 pounds now but fat. If he was a healthy weight, he would probably be somewhere from 11-12 pounds. Apparently at the age of 8-10 weeks when we adopted him, he was a full pound heavier than his litter mates so they predicted he would be a large cat.</p>