Persian cat hair is soft and pleasant to touch, as long as it’s attached to the cat!

Petting Dougy today, I quickly created a fuzzball of Persian hair. Poor cat! Not only is he Persian, he’s fuzzier than his brother. The shed hair gets in his eyes. I can brush him, take him to the groomer, but he is cursed to trail hair behind him as long as he’s shedding.

How long is a Persian cat’s shedding season? No one knows. I think it is all year, judging from the hairballs I clean up. That’s all I can do: Clean after Dougy and his brother Andy, to the extent they shed.

I keep a cat brush next to my computer.

I watch cat videos, and marvel at those of Persians with long hair. One lady has a house full of them, and brushes each one at least once or twice a day. She harvests at least enough hair each time to make a full cat or a cashmere-soft cat hair sweater if she is really clever. Seriously!

Until they were 16 months old, Andy and Dougy grew their hair to full Persian length. Two problems with that: Poop and mats. Poop I washed out in dreaded cat baths. Mats sometimes combed out, other times required a steady hand and a cooperative (rarely) cat!

Mats I could handle. Poop was another matter. I’d stumble out of my bedroom in the dark of early morning, and I’d feel something squishy under foot. Yep! Poop!

Dougy had the worst poop issues because his poop tended to stick in the hair on his tail and rump. Of course, some of it fell off for me to find with my feet, but sometimes a full bowl movement trapped itself in his rear, necessitating a major bath.

Andy, in his long hair days, had digestive issues, so his poop was anywhere from diarrhea to toothpaste-like. The problem there was it’d soak into his hair, he’d sit on the floor, window sills, or wherever, and leave a little poop circle or smear. Plus, he perpetuated his digestive issues (I think and strongly feel) by cleaning himself and ingesting that nasty stuff.

Andy was fuzzy before bi-monthly haircuts.

In November 2012, I started bi-monthly groomer appointments for the boys. After the first time, mats and poopy butts became rare or missing altogether. And good riddance! Thanks, Sarah! You do a great job grooming my cats, and they are healthier for it!

I can’t remember the last time I had to give Andy or Dougy a bath. Well, I don’t want to remember, it was so traumatic for both cat and man. Compared with that ordeal, a little shed hair or a lot is nothing!