Yes. Weird title. But let me explain.
One of our cats suffers from asthma attacks once in a while. And when it happens, her shortness of breath can seem frightening especially when the wheezing gets loud. Now, for those who know this cat, she’s pretty much impossible to man-handle in any way. So getting her the asthma inhaler has been a challenge. So in my infinite (lack of) wisdom, I’ve decided to construct a box w/ a tiny opening to puff the inhaler in for the duration of the dose… if I can somehow get her inside the box. But even that doesn’t usually work all that well though it improves her condition.
So last night was one of those times when her asthma was so bad that she just gave up running and reluctantly let me administer the inhaler on her even without the box. So I puffed and puffed. But because she was so out of breath for so long that she decided to lay there and just rest! This was a rare calm mood for this cat. Immediately I took a pair of scissors and started trimming her matted fur — and as the Harlows can attest, it’s a big fat mess on her back that has eventually become a big flat door mat — and it was tough, as in a well-knitted mat. It’s become that way because she’s never allowed anyone to brush her.
After almost two hours of going through some hissing and reposition negotiations, I finally managed to get rid of 95% of that big mess of fur on her back (at the sacrifice of sleep @ 4am when I should be coding for Neely’s project). The good news was, she was so tired and out of breath that 90% of the time she just let me cut through the mess with the scissors even though that meant having to endure some pain in some tough areas. Maybe she was really tired; or maybe she knew I was doing a favor… For whatever reason, she let me do it. And I am glad to announce that she’s now 95% mat free!
So you see, had she not had asthma attacks and as stubborn as she has been, she would never be as tired and been without a care for almost two hours. And if not for that, I’d never be able to trim her matted fur so relatively easily. I feel bad that it takes a bad asthma attack to clear out an old problem of hers. But at the end it all worked out — she got her inhaler doses; I got to trim her hair. And both cats got treats for being cool.