10 Reasons Not to Bathe your Cat

Shay decided that Molly was dirty and gave her a bath in the sink tonight.

Molly didn’t like it.

Molly is a 12 year old, formerly white cat with very sharp teeth. I have bath time battle wounds to prove it.

10 lessons I learned from this event:

1.  Cats do not like baths--even if they have neglected grooming themselves for the last several years.

2.  Cats especially do not like the sprayer in the sink sprayed upon them during rinsing.

3.  Cats—even very fat cats—look much smaller when they are wet.

4.  Cats make unnatural guttural noises that sound very un-meow-like when they are immersed in water.

5.  Even old cats become incredibly strong when trying to escape from the water in a deep sink.

6.  Clean cats still stink really bad when wet.

7.  It takes two people to remove a mad, bathed cat from the sink when the water is drained.

8.  It is impossible to lift a wet cat out of the sink without getting injured.  Therefore one must wear a winter coat and thick gloves to perform this task.

9.  Wet cats hold a grudge and attempt to hiss, scratch, and bite anything that approaches them within an hour after the bath.

10.  Old white cats don’t really turn bright white after their bath—they just kind of stay dingy-looking.  We are considering bleaching Molly.  Of course, we will have her wear protective eye wear during this procedure.