Just inquisitiveness set off by the dog bathing thread, really. I've no intention of ever attempting this, though I suppose if one of my cats got a horrible skin disease I might have to try. I've read instructions to do so in plenty of cat care books. I've never knowingly known anyone to bathe their cat but have known many who think the very notion would go down very badly with their furry beloved! Do show cats get bathed? How often? :)

I once had to bath my mostly-white cat when she managed to get into the attic, and wandered, somehow, into the eaves space; we wondered where she'd gone as she was an indoor cat. When she appeared downstairs about an hour later she was proper black. :hihi:

My Mom thought she would just wash herself clean, but she kept licking little bits of herself and pulling a face (you had to see it to believe it!) so we decided we had no choice but to bath her.

Well. The commotion was appalling. We had run a bath of warmish water and attempted to lower her in. Both of us were scratched to within an inch of our lives, but once she realised we meant business, she just let us get on with things while singing mournfully. :( With hindsight, coconut shampoo wasn't the best thing to have used, :roll: but she was soon back to herself. :hihi:

She never did venture back into the attic though; I think she learned her lesson. :)

Had to bath my cat when i got it because it had been dumped and had had paint poured on it, also a couple of times when it had come back after a few days muddied up and minus a collar.
He didn't like it at first the first few times, but once in he was ok, known him to have jumped in by accident aswell :hihi:

Had to bath my cat when i got it because it had been dumped and had had paint poured on it, also a couple of times when it had come back after a few days muddied up and minus a collar.
He didn't like it at first the first few times, but once in he was ok, known him to have jumped in by accident aswell :hihi:

Oh no! What sort of paint? Hope it wasn't oil/solvent based. :(

Both my specimens have had more than one accidental bath which can hardly be beaten for comedy value, although I'd rather they didn't go and sit on the video player straight afterwards, sopping wet!

I love Kristian's story. I would have loved to have seen the face of distaste. :hihi:

Had to bath my cat when i got it because it had been dumped and had had paint poured on it

Poooor tom3t0 kittie! A friend of mine would bath her terrible two with the dawgs once a week. They loved it! No really... they used to wait until she was peacefully lying in the bath before diving in! haha... :hihi:

my cat loves the bath, hes 1 and weve bathed him a few times from being a kitten...
although he looks more like a drownded rat when he gets out :hihi:

My parents have the scars to prove the time they had to hold the cats in the bath and spray them with flea spray due to being completely infested!

Never once forgot a frontline since :hihi:

only once and that was when the little darling decided to roll in oil

After securing the bathroom door and window we had a fun filled half hour of howling, growling, hissing, scratching, showercurtain climbing before she ws clean. I have never seen such an evil look from a cat as we attempted to dry her nor a more pitiful expression as she sat sulking in front of the fire to dry off

We joke about the comedy value of attempting to bath our cats. We bath the dogs when they roll in stinky things, but can never imagine bathing the cat. I know some people do but our rescue cats are quirky as it is. It takes me all the time to catch them, let alone immerse them in water!!!!

I've had to bath Merlin a few times (when she got covered in lovely carcinogenic soot in the attic when I demolished the chimney, when she did a fireman's pole slide down a piece of oiled steel and got her tummy covered in swarf and mineral oil....) and it took two people, one of whom had the strength to hold on to her scruff even whilst being bitten.

I've also bathed a few other kitties for similar reasons (neighbours come and fetch me for all sorts of animal emergencies, cos I look like I know what I'm doing) and on one occasion completed giving a cat a shower with her teeth sunk through my arm.

In general they really don't like it- occasionally you'll find one who'll grudgingly stop struggling when they realise that there's nothing they can do about it, but they're in the minority. Very very occasionally you find a cat that actually likes playing in water, and then the problem becomes how you can keep them out of water when you want a relaxing bath yourself (and how you can keep the Frontline on them when they dunk themselves in water for fun).

My other half has had to bath our idiot a few times. I cant do it because I end up bleeding to death but hes scared enough of her to allow her to bathe him.

He sulked for days afterwards too.

Charlie once fell bum first into a tray of paint which I thought was rather amusing till I saw the white footprints everywhere!!!
I had hold of him head facing backwards under my arm with back end over the sink while I scrubbed at him!! I was still picking paint blobs off him a week later!!
For some reason he stays well clear when there's paint around! :hihi:

Only once, by accident.
At my Mums, she was washing up. Cat jumps onto (wet) draining board to say hello - splosh!

That was one miserable looking cat! :hihi:

Ooooh- forgot the first reason that Merlin got bathed. She jumped head first into a bucket of wallpaper paste!

I managed to wash it all off the outside of her (which wasn't easy, cos wallpaper paste is slimy stuff, and keeping hold of a kitten covered in the stuff is like juggling eels) but then I had to take her to the vets for them to remove the rapidly setting goo from down her ears.

I had a kitten who I bathed from being tiny because he was so naughty he always used to get filthy. I didn't have to bath him for a few months and the next time I tried it he went loopy and I could never do it again.

If I ever need to do either of mine I'm guess the boy will just take it after a few whines and the girl will go mental - so I'll be purchasing some welding gloves before that happens!

I'm getting so many images in my head reading through this! :hihi:

The funniest thing is in cat care books, when they have line drawn step by step diagrams about how to bathe your cat (or give them a pill, or whatever), and the cat is just sat there calmly letting the pair of hands gently do whatever with not a twitch of complaint. Trying to give my cats a pill looks more like a finale from World Wrestling Foundation, or one of those cartoon fights that turns into a turbulent cloud with just the occassional limb reappearing here and there. I think if I tried to give one a bath I'd have to have my flat refurbished again!

Here's a sight you don't often see. (http://www.hayes-ent.com/pairodocs/images/Squirt_011-sm.jpg) But according to the website, even Turkish Vans, the swimming cats, don't like being shampooed and are just as likely to get mardy.