By Paul Cook
Harry is a 4 year old domestic medium haired cat who came into our salon after recently being
adopted by his owner Jax. Known to Jax for a long time as a stray in the area presumed to have a home but having a habit of popping in for a visit, Harry was eventually taken to the vet by Jax (after a feed or two) to check if he was microchipped or not. To Jax’s surprise, he wasn’t and from there he spent a fortnight at Lort Smith in North Melbourne to see if his original owners (if any) might claim him.
After two weeks and no one coming up to claim Harry, Jax chose to add an extra cat to her
household and adopt him. We met Harry just 2 weeks later. (1)
Harry came to us because Jax noticed a build up of dirt and oil on his coat, particularly at the base of his tail, and wanted to clean him up to give him a head start keeping himself clean as the build-up of dirt was getting too much for him to clean on his own. (2)
After having a conversation about what Jax would like, and taking into consideration it is still fairly cold and Harry hadn’t been groomed before, we opted for a comb clip, sanitary clip, belly shave and partial tail shave to clean a particularly greasy part of his coat. We also shampooed, bathed, dried and performed an ear and eye clean, along with a nail clip that is standard for most grooms.
As we started to shave the base of the tail where Harry’s greasy dirt was particularly built up we noticed some bald patches on his skin which most likely occurred from excessive licking on his part.
We carefully shaved the area and chose the appropriate amount of hair to shave off his tail.
The approach we took led to Harry being left with a clean shaved tail free of the build up of dirt and grease that was causing him problems.
After cleaning and bathing the skin on his tail now looks healthy and his hair is expected to regrow normally. He now has a cute little lion puff – hopefully Jax’s other cat doesn’t make fun of his new look.
We began to move onto shaving other areas of his body, paying particular attention to the sanitary area where a build-up of…. Gunk…. Needed removing.
(Pictures not supplied)
After performing the short shave on Harry’s sanitary area and belly we began his comb clip across his main coat, leaving approximately 10mm of hair on his body.
And here is where we made a BIG mistake….. we forgot to take more photos of this process to share with you, so here is just one of him mid-groom, taking a break and looking out the window.
After the clipping, bath and blow dry Harry was squeaky clean and looking beautiful!
Because the style of cut is a comb clip and not a lion cut the fur is left longer on the main coat. As with every comb clip, the track marks left by the clippers will remain for 1-2 days but will soon dissolve, leaving a soft and velvety coat.
Harry was finally returned to his carrier and had a short car ride to return home to a warm house and long couch to stretch out on.
(Please note this photo of Harry was him relaxing on the couch before the groom!)
A Final Note: Harry’s groom wasn’t typical. Comb cuts are less common than lion cuts, and the need to shave down part of his tail isn’t usual. He came in at a reasonably cold time of year having never been groomed before and only recently finding a new home off the streets. We chose a combination of styles and approaches that best met his specific needs. A shaved tail, belly and sanitary clip in combination with a comb clip and bath meet the needs of this cat and his owner. That all said Harry was a delight to work on and it was great to meet with his owner Jax.
About the Author:
Paul is a former café owner and an apprentice cat groomer at Groomzy studying towards the CFMG via the NCGI
(1) Under ordinary circumstances we typically wait four weeks before seeing a cat who has just
laid roots in a new home to make sure they are as comfortable as possible.
(2) Groomers will tell you that a cat will never actually clean him/herself as well as what a
professional groomer can, although it is to be said that some breeds of cats need far less
grooming than others.