I TOLD HER SO

 

 

Kitty Pop, in full coat. 

Way back on February 9, 2015, I wrote a post about the possibility of Kitty Pop being supremely embarrassed if she continued to refuse to let me groom her.  Yep, here's the very Lion Cut I found on the internet to threaten her with if she didn't change her sassy ways.

 

 

In the 6 years since, we've been able to compromise.  She takes care of herself as best she can.  I sneak in a few scissor snips for the bigger mats. I get her special treats and do a few strokes of grooming when I can.   A couple of times I've taken her to the vet to clip out mats too close to the skin or in a place like her chest, which is COMPLETELY off limits to me.  We've made do.   

Something happened this winter, though.  Despite my being able to do more grooming than usual, her coat just got more matted.  The vet was running a special on dentals in February, and since she was due for hers with a possible extraction, I scheduled her and asked if they could clip mats out while she was under anesthesia, making it easy on all of us.  They said sure.

When I dropped her off (terrific curbside service at the vet we go to!), I reiterated the request for them to clip the mats, and told them to use their best judgement once they got in there and saw what the true condition of her coat was.  

I went to pick her up and the vet came out to the parking log and said: "Good news!  We saved the tooth!  Bad news!  We couldn't save her coat!"  He said they started clipping each mat, but the more they cut the more there were, so.......yep, Kitty Pop has a Lion Cut.

 

This is the night we brought her home.  They left her tail.

A few days later.

Getting used to it. 

Thinking about getting sassy.

Ears back, tail twitching, she does NOT like being restrained, even for a beauty shot!

Interestingly, Kitty Pop doesn't seem to mind the cut at all.  Not a trace of embarrassment.  She spends most of her day on Gypsy's heated pillow in the bedroom, but she was doing that before she got Lionized.  She goes outside; briefly when it's cold but noticeably longer already as the days warm.  She sleeps in her current favorite spots; on the pulled out foot rest of the couch by the wood stove, or snuggled up in the bend of my legs.  

Also interestingly, I don't mind the cut at all!  I thought I would dislike it.  But where it's clipped is super-soft, like velvet.  And she doesn't mind a certain amount of my running my hand down it to feel it.  Also, it has revealed her figure, which if I say so myself, is pretty dang cute!  A bit of a tummy but not much, and some funny little dangly flaps, hanging down, like chicken wattles.    

We're all pleased!

I call her Lioness, even though females don't have manes.