why wait? ugh (kind of a rant)

today my mom's boss' wife came by to drop off some fudge (yay) and she saw Shiraz and said how beautiful she was (yes, i know i'm very proud ) ANYWAYS... i told her how she had just got groomed... and she mentioned that she has 2 maine coons that she "just cant get in the habit of brushing"... and when she brings them to the vet every year, they always have mattes and every year she has to apologize to the groomer... now i know it can be hard to keep up (she has 4 kids and a husband with a big corporate job, and she's a physician's assistant), but come on... i don't go a day without brushing shiraz, if she ever gets a matte, i'm there trying to get it out... but never multiple! i'm sure she loves her cats, but that just kind of annoyed me... maybe i'm over-reacting?

I'd feel the exact same way. I feel sorry for her kitties - seems like they don't get the attention they need. Some people just shouldn't have pets.

Laurie

IMO you don't own a longhair cat of any type/breed unless you have the time for grooming! I'll admit they look pretty but also I can't stand daily grooming. I had a Turkish Angora - my first and last longhair cat. Found someone that had more time/patience and liked grooming that wanted to adopt him.

Gaia is my first long-hair cat and I'm lucky in that she keeps herself beautiful, I would never choose a long-hair though, never understood why they seem so popular, that's a lot of work!!

yeah, shiraz is medium haired, and i even mentioned to the lady that i know that some cats dont like being brushed/combed, and she said they dont mind, it's just her i can barely pick up the brush and Shiraz is crying and running toward me and if i stop for a minute to take out the hair, she cries more my wittle baby... i just love her so much, right now she's laid upside down on my feet... never thought i'd love a cat so much til i had one!

I think my friend will be the exact same way as this lady. She just got a cute litle kitten out of a free box in front of a store... a beautiful little thing thats probably 1/2 lb of kitten 2 lbs of fluffy... she definitly gives new meaning to I'm fluffy not fat lol. I have seriously never seen a kitten so fluffy. Well anyway, I keep telling her to buy her a brush and start grooming her all the time, because she is SO going to need it... we were in the store today and she was looking at brushes and asked if she should get one... I said "If you don't own a brush. make sure you own scissors to cut out tons of mattes" and she was like, well I have scissors and didn't buy the brush because it was 5 bucks. I wonder if its a Christmas gift if she'll use it.... urg some people!

Haha sorry when I saw the Im fluffy not fat it tempted me!

Anyway, BooBoo once had a mat on his back and it pulled at his fur and I had to get out the scissors!! Its like he had one spot where he couldn't groom or something and I couldn't stand it there and he couldn't either! Long hairs are a lot of work, but they do need to be groomed alot...

That's the main reason for my love of shorthairs, I know that I wouldn't want to have to groom regularly. So I stick to shorthairs, I really don't see what's so difficult about that. Why get Maine Coons if you're not into grooming them?

Both of my cats are long haired cats. Chloe is so young still. I am trying to get her used to being brushed because the brush is a toy to her still.

Mattie is usually brushed everyday...except that ever since I've had to give her corticosteroids for her chin acne 3x a day, I haven't been brushing her as often. She is going through enough as it is (she *hates* having stuff put on her chin) that I'm giving her a little break on the brushing (because she hates that too). She has a mat on her chest as a result of not brushing her daily for about 1.5 weeks and the residue from the corticosteroid cream but I am taking her to the groomer next week. I might just cut if off myself first, I don't know. She looks funny right now anyway because her chin has no hair on it (shaved off by the vet to get at the acne). She's a high maintenance kitty for sure.

Brushes really don't do much for a longhair cat - you need COMBS for proper grooming

Friends of ours have two PB Maine Coons - take very good care of them. They Shave the boys most of the time b/c of the hair - the hubby likes giving them little mohawks and poofs on the ends of their tails.

I guess they like the breed's OTHER qualities.

I worked at a grooming place as a receptionist, and there were a LOT of people who brought in long-haired cats to be shaved, matted or not. Sometimes you'd shave the cat and the hair would come off in one big sheet, like a carpet.

Then again, a lot of people can't be bothered to keep up with grooming their long-haired dogs either. People may be busy, but some of them are just lazy.

Poor cats... did you tell her the matting can cause irritation and skin issues?

I have 3 medium-hairs (Delilah and the raggie boys) and 2 short-hairs (Blue and Piper). Delilah HATES to be groomed. This is my fault because I didn't work with her enough as a baby to get her used to it, but I can only get a few passes of the comb in at one shot before she attacks it. Luckily her coat does not mat much. Usually only when she's shedding her coat, she might start to mat a bit around her ears, and then I just make sure to clip it out right away. (Strangely, she doesn't mind me cutting her fur!) I cannot imagine ever getting her shaved - I'm sure she would hate me forever!

With Griffin and Bastian, I've been careful to get them accustomed to being combed, nails trimmed, and just handled in general, so hopefully I won't have similar problems with them.

My short-hair kitties get Furminated usually every week or two. I also have a rubber brush that I use every few days, just when I'm already petting and cuddling them.