The Common Denominator

And another thing about cats, especially long haired chubby ones like Isadora, my darling calico......sometimes poop gets stuck to their butts. Izzy gets really embarrassed when it happens. I can usually tell because she is suddenly overly affectionate which is not at all normal for her and means that she needs my help for something. When she loved up to me this morning I suspected as much. After several tries, I finally caught a look at her butt and sure 'nuff there was poop matted in her hair.

Everyone knows what a princess I am and this job is better handled by our vet. We tell him Izzy has shit stuck on her butt and he takes care of it. She comes home all cleaned up with a fresh smell and then our boy cats hiss at her because they are convinced she is someone new.

But this morning something made me think we should try to do it ourselves. She was relaxing in the sun so I stroked her underarms and signalled John to help. He grabbed a paper towel and made one successful swipe before she caught on to the program and fled for cover.

Later in the day we tried again with John holding her. Once again, she was asleep in the sun when we approached. He grabbed her gently but she struggled so much he had to take a firm hold. I had the scissors and started to gently and slowly snip snip snip around the matted area. I got one hunk out and went to work on another. It was going smashingly well and I was about finished when John quietly says, "Honey, I'm bleeding on the cat."

I looked up to see blood from John's hand literally dripping onto Izzy's back. HUH? For an instant I thought I had perhaps clipped his hand then I realized she must have scratched him pretty badly. Of course drama queen MB, I immediately freaked out. Which is when Izzy took off like a bat out of Hell. And which is when she must have realized she had some foreign liquid on her back. Which is when she decided to remove it by rubbing her back against our foyer wall. Leaving a 3 foot streak of blood that looked like it was from a crime scene.

Geez.