Bathtime Miracle

We have a cat.

Her name is MamaCat. She kind of came with the house when we moved in (in an abandoned-kitty-now-ferel sort of way) and after a while found us acceptable and adopted us (in a still-fairly-skittish kind of way. ) But, more often than not, she has been able to let down her guard enough so that she demands petting constantly, and will sleep on the highest point of your body while you are in bed.

Now, we've had her fixed, gotten her shots, give her flea drops, and feed her well. Admittedly, we're a bit slow on the litter box sometimes, but I think she forgives us. It helps that she's an indoor/outdoor cat. Which brings us to the one thing we've never done: given her a bath.

My understanding has always been that cats are pretty clean animals, and I still agree with that. However, I think Mama must go to some pretty disgusting places when she's out roaming. Mama has been shedding not only hair lately, but dirt and (super yuk) flea poop. Time for desperate measures. Husband and I update our wills, pull out the chainmail, and grab the cat.

Yes, Mama howled like the damned when locked in the bathtub with me . Yes, she tried to escape through the quarter inch gap between the sliding glass door and the wall. Yes, she suffered through the injustice of the lavender-scented shampoo I picked up that very day. But then the strangest thing happened: I picked her up, and she started to purr! I handed her to Husband who wrapped her in a towel, and she purred even louder! He laid her down on the floor so he could rub her dry, and she nuzzled him the whole time!! Still purring! Hell, we opened the bathroom door and she looked back at us like, "What, are we done?"

She eventually sauntered off as cats do, leaving two puzzled but otherwise unmolested humans in her wake. I've never washed a cat before, and after hearing horror story after horror story, you can see how maybe last night didn't play out like I thought it was going to. Mind you, I'm not complaining that I wasn't flayed alive. I just...I'm not sure. Is she really ok with this? Or did she snap when she was in the tub and is now just in her kitty cat happy place, locked in her mind, waiting until she is triggered again, to then slash our throats whilst we sleep? Nice kitty....

Well, if she's gonna snap, I bet it won't be for a while. I woke up this morning with an extra soft, lavender scented kitty balanced on my shoulder, dreaming warm kitty dreams... and drooling.

Bleck. Now I need a bath.