In May 2009 I bought Puddy a brand spankin’ new scratching post for her birthday and hoped she’d use it, since she’s so unpredictable when it comes to cat toys. Luckily she did use it – in fact, she used it to death! Within a matter of months, it looked like this:

She’d completely ripped the top bit to shreds, revealing the cardboard underneath. She still seemed content with it for a while, so I didn’t buy her a new one, but recently she’s begun scratching at the lounge suite – something she’s never done before – so I took that as a sign that she’s given up on the scratching post and that means it’s time for a) a new one or b) me to fix the old one.

I figured, why not, let’s try to DIY fix this thing, since a new one will cost upwards of $50. I took it outside and put it on the table so I was at eye level. For the first real time, I took in the complete damage and geez, she’d gone to town on the post! The cardboard was even scratched up a little and I felt a twinge of guilt for not fixing it earlier.

First things first – I grabbed a pair of scissors and chopped off all the ripped material and rope. The top half of the post had actually been covered mostly with fur (the fur you can see up the top) and I think Puddy prefers the rope because it’s easier to scratch, but the rope bit was too far down for her to get a good grip. I decided for this reason, to wrap some rope around the top half instead of replacing the material.

Much better. Pulling off all the ripped material and rope revealed just how scratched up the cardboard was. For some reason, this picture makes me giggle when I look at it – it sort of looks like the post has a bowl-haircut.

I wrapped rope (fluro green, unfortunately that’s all I could find, but I don’t think cats care about colour) around the post, tightly winding it so it would be secure when she scratched. I glued both ends but didn’t glue the middle as I figured the tension would keep the rope on and if I found better rope later it would be easier to remove. And whola – the finished product:

But wait – there’s a cat in the picture! That would be because, the instant I turned away to grab the camera, Puddy jumped up on the table and grabbed the post, claws out. I’d tied a spare bit of rope around the top of the post to keep it in place while the glue dried – this will be removed later (so she won’t actually be able to chew on the rope), but as you can see, the bit sticking out proved to be a lot of fun for Puddy. I love the ears back – she was concentrating very hard!

I guess even though it’s a fugly colour of green, Puddy is pleased with her new and improved scratching post … and hopefully this means the furniture will be saved from her claws!

Phill and I are actually thinking about going out this weekend and buying some wood to make some cat furniture! We’ve been looking online at some simple plans and there’s a few really nice designs that don’t look too hard to make. Have you made your cat furniture? Heaven knows it’ll be cheaper than buying it!

Yesterday we got hit with a pretty bad dust storm which left the world looking very orange for the majority of the day. I managed to get Puddy inside and close all the doors and windows before it really arrived, which spared me the painful task of cleaning up a dusty house today. I didn’t get a fantastic photo but here’s one I took around lunchtime, when the sky should have been blue and the sun should have been shining brightly:

It was a pretty miserable, orange day.

This morning, the skies had cleared so I let Puddy outside. I discovered my mistake when she came in hours later – completely covered in dust and dirt! She’d obviously been rolling about in all the excess dirt left behind by the storm and now she was absolutely filthy!

Trust me, the photo doesn’t do it justice – it was seriously the dirtiest I’ve ever seen her! So anyway, there was only one thing to do – it was bathtime for Puddy! Or, as I said out loud to myself, “It’s B-A-T-H-T-I-M-E!” (Yes, I swear she can understand particular words like “dinner” and “bathtime”. It’s freaky.)

Now, let me preface this by saying I don’t believe bathing your cat is cruel and anyone who says it is simply isn’t doing it right! Cats clean themselves a lot and they do a good job, but sometimes (like when they are covered in dirt and dust) you really do need to step in and give them a hand. I figured I haven’t done a proper post on this before, so I grabbed my camera and decided to document how to bathe your cat (without losing an eye).

Step One – Run a Bath

Do this while your cat is elsewhere in the house (and make sure she can’t get outside!). If your cat is in the bathroom while you’re running the bath, she will panic and you don’t want that – you want her to be as calm as possible. Make sure the bath is warm, not cold. How deep to make the bath depends on your cat – I have found that Puddy is more tolerant of a deeper bath that almost reaches (but doesn’t touch) her belly, but your cat might prefer shallower. I definitely wouldn’t recommend any deeper than their belly.

Step Two  – Get the Bathroom Ready

This involves clearing the space around the bath of anything your cat might knock over. Get rid of razors, books – anything that might get damaged or do damage to you or your cat. Lie one (old ratty) towel down on the floor and have another one ready, to the side. Take the lid off the pet shampoo bottle (trust me, you’ll want it ready to go). Please don’t try to use human shampoo. You can buy pet shampoo at the Vet’s or a good quality Pet Store.

Step Three – Find your Cat

Give your cat plenty of cuddles, scoop her up and take her calmly to the bathroom. If she’s anything like my cat, she’ll know exactly what’s going to happen and will start to meow. I guess now is a good time to remind you to make sure her nails are clipped before you try this. Anyway, bring her inside the bathroom and make sure the door is closed. Take off her collar and put it somewhere safe. Try to calm her down, but don’t spend too long on this. She knows she’s getting a bath, so don’t put off the inevitable if she’s not going to easily calm down. I swear she’s just hoping you’ll give in and let her go.

Step Four – Gently Lower your Cat into the Bath

I’ve found the easiest way to hold your cat is to put your hand just below her neck in front of the top of her legs, with your thumb coming up around the neck, along the shoulders. Obviously, don’t hold her around the neck. I’m not explaining this well, so here is a photo to help you:

See how I am not strangling my cat? The reason I hold her this way is because her first reaction is to want to jump out of the bath. To do that, she’d have to press against my hand, so of course, she’s not going to be going anywhere. Keep your cat facing the wall or lengthways down the tub (like she is in the above photo). You don’t want her to be able to grab a hold of the edge of the bathtub, because then she will be able to catapault herself out, sending water everywhere.

Step Five – Dampen your Cat’s Fur

Scoop up handfuls of water and pat it onto her back. I use a “patting” motion because it helps to keep your cat calm since they (generally) like being patted. Make sure she is nice and wet, but be careful with the eyes and ears – you don’t want to get water in those. I usually just do under her chin, under her ears (cheeks) and the top of her head. If your cat gets water in her eyes she’s likely to panic and if she gets water in her ears it can be difficult to get out again, which could lead to infection. Don’t keep her in the water for too long – either take her out or allow her to jump out once she’s wet. Remember that water will stick to a cat’s fur, so it’s not necessary to completely drench her.

Step Six – Shampoo your Cat

Put a squirt of shampoo down your cat’s back and rub it in. You might need to keep dipping your hands in the water because as you are shampooing your cat, a lot of loose fur will come off onto your hands. This is good – this is less fur on your furniture and carpet and of course, less fur for your cat to cough up later! Don’t forget to do under her belly and the top of her head (once again being careful to avoid the eyes or ears). Be gentle when you are doing her belly because the belly is a sensitive area for cats, as is the tail.

Step Seven – Rinse off the Shampoo

Lower your cat back into the water and hold her while you rinse off the shampoo by scooping up water with your free hand. It is important to do a thorough job here because you don’t want your cat to lick shampoo when she is cleaning herself afterwards. I find that, while Puddy is in the water, she responds well to my continuous talking, like “Good girl! You’re being so good!” in a calm, steady voice. Once again, be aware of her body language – keep your hand firmly in place to avoid a sudden leap for freedom.

Step Eight – Dry your Cat

Once the shampoo has gone, get your cat out or allow her to jump out. This is where the spare towel comes in handy. Grab that and give her a good pat dry. Don’t rub too hard, just give her a once-over to help the excess water come off. The aim now is to get her dry as quickly as possible. Cats can catch a cold, so if there’s a cold breeze, you need her to find sun and warmth quickly. I don’t recommend washing your cat in winter or at night-time, for obvious reasons.

There’s two ways to get your cat dry. The first way is to use your hairdryer on a very low setting. Your cat might not like this but Puddy doesn’t seem to mind. Just make sure you don’t hold it too close to her skin – you don’t want her to burn, and avoid blowing it in her eyes. The second way is to ensure she finds the sun. Puddy has a favourite room that she always runs to because it’s always got a nice hot Australian sun coming through the window.

If your cat is sitting in the sunlight and licking herself dry, she’s okay to leave alone. If she’s not in the sunlight, you need to put her in sunshine and watch her until she starts to dry. As I said – they can catch a cold very easily and their fur does seem to hold a lot of water. Oh, and don’t try to brush her fur while it’s wet – this can be painful for your cat.

Step Nine – Reward Your Cat

Your cat needs to know that you didn’t do this to be mean – you did it to make her nice and clean. Keep treats on hand that you can give her and of course, pats and loving words go down nicely too. Then, give her some space to clean herself – she’ll need time to regain her dignity! Trust me when I say she will seek you out about 20 minutes later, sit on your lap and continue to clean herself for another half hour. This is, what I like to call, my punishment.

At this stage, your cat might like you to brush her – you’ll get a lot of fur off and this will save her licking it up.

Step Ten – Clean Up the Bombshell Bathroom

Don’t forget about the bathroom, as I have done before. It will be very wet and very furry, so you’ll need to clean it up. Remember to get your cat’s collar and put it back on her as soon as she’s dry – you don’t want her getting outside without her identification on her. In fact, you don’t want her getting outside at all for a while, because now she’s beautifully fluffy, clean and smelling delicious!

So there you go – I hope this has helped if you’re intending on bathing your cat for the first time. I don’t do it often – probably once every few months when she comes inside really dirty. Indoor cats probably don’t need washing at all  since they’re not exposed to dirt, dust, sand, soil and other dirty things you find outside.  But if you’ve got a cat like mine, that seems to attract dirt, you may need to give her a bath once in a while.

Oh … and wear old clothes, because you’re going to get splashed.

I must admit that I have been rather neglectful of Puddy since Phill and I returned from our holiday.  Of course, I’ve been feeding her and giving her the odd head scritch and I always give in when she jumps up on the bed and wriggles under the doona (much to Phill’s displeasure), but other than that, I’ve sort of been leaving her to fend for herself. I can’t remember the last time I sat outside with her, trailing grass runners across the yard for her to pounce on. I’ve simply been too busy and too distracted. There’s been laundry to do, a kitchen to clean, showers to scrub, carpets to vacuum, lawns to mow, jobs to attend … the list goes on and on.

That is why today, on my day off, I decided to go outside and spend some quality time with Puddy. She lapped up the attention, flopping and rolling and pouncing and biting – she had a ball and frankly, I enjoyed it too. Oh to be a carefree cat whose day consists of sleeping, eating, bathing and sleeping! Sure would be a pleasant change from having to be an adult with responsibility and stress.

The grass is looking a little dead because of the recent mow and lack of rain, which doesn’t make it the most comfortable to sit on, but I sucked it up for some playtime. I couldn’t find any grass runners since I guess I must have mowed over the majority of them, but I managed to find a longish bit of grass for Puddy to grab at.

I love Puddy’s concentration in this photo – she’s really eyeing the grass (yes, it is grass although it doesn’t really look like it!) and wondering if it’s worth her attention or not. Of course it is – any cat owner will see a cat preparing to strike in the above photo, her left paw about to reach up off the ground to swat at the grass. After all, who could resist something dangling right in front of their face?

I told you so.

It’s a half-hearted one-paw attack since the rest of her body is still flat against the ground. Her attention is obviously not completely attracted. Well, I can fix that, can’t I? With a little more effort on my part, Puddy finally can’t ignore the fact that this annoying dangly thing is really bugging her and she goes for a two-pawed attack.

I love her little claws ready to grab at the grass. Those babies were really long by the time we got back from holidays. Her new scratching post is scratched almost to death (I will have to show you a photo of the damage) in an attempt to keep them under control. I forgot to show my brother how to trim them but, to be honest, I am flat out myself trimming them because I am terrified of cutting the quick, so I’m not sure how my brother would have gone with it.

For more cat-related posts, visit Pet’s Garden Blog for the Carnival of the Cats. I’m not sure who is hosting Weekend Cat Blogging, but I’ll find out and update this post when I know. Have a great weekend everyone and thanks for dropping by, we love visitors!

The worst part about being away from home for five weeks, besides missing Puddy, is that by the time you get home, the lawn has become a jungle. Sure, my brother was house-sitting, but as I didn’t list “mow the lawn” as one of the things to do, it didn’t get done. I must admit, I’ve been putting off mowing the lawn this week because I came home from holiday with a broken toe and the thought of pushing our old-fashioned push lawn mower up the hill, battling the long grass, just made me want to cry. Today, however, I was feeling up to it, so for documentations sake, here is the “before” photo:

Notice the cactus in the back which has appeared to keel over and is now being supported by the air conditioning unit? I went in for a closer examination and discovered a monster of a weed had sprung up behind it and pushed it over. I hate that back corner of the yard. The reddish plant is nice but makes it almost impossible to climb through to the back bit which was just dirt when we moved in and is now dirt plus weeds. I pull out the weeds every month and within days they are back. I want to tear up part of the reddish plant to make stepping stones, but when I asked the real estate I was told I couldn’t – apparently it looks good the way it is. Yeah, right.

Puddy decided to come over and see what I was up to. I don’t know what it is about our yard but as soon as we venture out into the grass, Puddy comes bolting over from wherever she was hiding. Perhaps it’s because I often sit out there with her and play with the long grass runners so she associates us in the yard with playtime?

Apparently she disapproves of the length of the grass … or she’s preparing to come and head-bump me because I’ve lowered myself to the ground in order to get a photo of her and am therefore vulnerable to her attack. Which one is it?

Yup, that would be a head-bump right there, silly cat!

Anyway, I got out the lawn mower and that sent Puddy running off. She’s terrified of it and I don’t blame her – it makes a really loud whirring noise. Our neighbour has a similar one and she’s outside at least a few hours a day mowing her (perfect) lawn and after about ten minutes of the noise I just want to scream. Our lawn mower is not my favourite thing in the world, but hey, it’s a work-out, it was free with the house and … it’s yellow. And yellow things are cool.

So, after a lot of sweating and swearing, I present the “after” photo:

TAA-DAA!

Haha, okay so it’s not totally finished (I didn’t even step foot in that back section), at least the grass is mowed.  I did lean over and prod the cactus to see if I could push it back into place, but it didn’t budge, so that job is delegated to Phill for this weekend. Oh, and see that darker green patch in the middle of the yard? That’s where the weeds were the thickest and I had to mow over that section about twenty times. By the end of it, I was completely exhausted!

I love this flower (weed?). I think it is the only remotely-pretty thing that has ever survived in our garden, so I didn’t have the heart to massacre it with the lawn mower. It still stands there proudly, untouched, next to the driveway. Aren’t the colours beautiful? Puddy gave it a half-hearted sniff and decided it was boring.

This weekend, WCB is being hosted at Mind of Mog and the Carnival of the Cats is at Kashim, Othello and Salome’s blog. We’re looking forward to catching up with all our blogging friends – both human and feline!