SUE this idiot…!

Do we have a name??

But if you adopted your cat as an adult, or didn’t realize it was a necessary skill for you and your cat to learn (because most cats, even Coons, don’t need regular human assistance when they’re kittens), it’s much harder to get started, and for a lot of people it’s pretty intimidating. It seems safer and more sensible to let the professionals do it, when it’s absolutely necessary–and most of the time, it is safe, and more sensible, at least, than trying it yourself if you’re scared of the process.

When I was a kid, our first cat only got her claws trimmed by the vet, because it seemed like such a scary thing to do ourselves; we were afraid of hurting her. Our second cat, when my sister and I were old enough to pool our funds and our research skills, and find a good breeder, was our first Maine Coon–and when we got our new kitten, the breeder said, “And this is how you trim her claws…” and suddenly it wasn’t scary anymore, and we got to practice the skill on a young kitten, rather than a grown cat. (Our first cat was a shelter kitty, a bit over a year old when we got her.)

Lots of people who love their cats simply haven’t been taught the skills needed for grooming and claw trimming, and are afraid they’d be putting themselves and their cats at risk by trying it.

We have a special long flexible nozzle which was installed in a shower stall for bathing the dogs—-nice warm water and all, choice of water stream velocity, and I get right in there with them and chat with the animal the whole time. The cats have always bathed themselves quite adequately with a possible help of a a spot foot bath or ear scrub from time to time. Animals are always less stressed at home with their owners than with anyone else. Just way too many loud sounds and weird smells at the doggie spa.

Brushing, trimming and easing snarls is time consuming but just more bonding time between you and your animal.

Perhaps if groomers etc knew there would be dire punishments they might not be abusive.

I hope this person sues the groomer and wins. That’s just inexcusable and despicable.
No one has to hurt an animal. If the animal isn’t behaving, just keep it in the carrier and tell the owner they couldn’t do the grooming because the cat was ballistic or whatever.

Stories like this make me want to be left alone in a room for 5 minutes with the abusers…while they’re tethered and helpless like the pets they’re supposed to groom.

My longhaired cat sounds much like yours. I’ve found it’s less stressful for both of us to sneek up on the problem with a pair of scissors when he’s feeling mellow and just cut off the kind of snarl that’s hard to brush out. He has enough hair that it doesn’t show, it grows back, and it’s a done deal before he has time to figure out it’s not something he wants to do. Also, a bit of preemptive claw tip clipping saves on the skin when it isn’t possible to avoid the longer grooming sessions. Cats don’t scratch to be mean, but when they’re stressed, they forget to be careful.

In the mean time, I can’t imagine trying to groom a stranger’s cat. Anyone who knows cats well enough to be good at it, probably wouldn’t attempt it in the first place. Cats that enjoy being brushed make it a pleasure for the owners to do it themselves, and the ones that don’t like it are going to be ten times harder for a stranger to deal with.

And, yeah, jail’s too good for someone who pretends to be a professional and beats up people’s pets. There seems to be way too many of these horror stories involving groomers. At a certain point some kind of professional certification and training should be required before being allowed to go into the business.

I have 3 long haired. a maine coone who loves everybody and is totally cool with baths and grooming (but ironically, is fastidious about grooming, so never needs to go to the groomer), a long haired “mutt” grey cat who has what i call “sticky” hair that get’s into knots no matter how much you brush her; and an orange male who is lazy about grooming and needs to be shaved once a year.

But, like catmom said, i am WITH my cats when they are groomed, and i asked around a lot before i selected my groomer.

I’m so glad Nusha is OK. She’s one lucky cat. My heart goes out to her owner.

~The Lioness

Hope you have a friend or relative who likes Nusha and Nusha likes who can groom Nusha for you if it’s something you can’t do. May need to switch to other grooming tools like soft nubby ones or the cat allergy wipe moist towels for less kitty stress.

Good luck