by Mouse

Created on: May 17, 2010

Especially if your cat is light coloured or indeed white, there will inevitably come a time when s/he gets filthy in something (perhaps engine oil from rubbing under cars as my youngest does) that would be bad for them to be ingesting by licking themselves clean.

At that point, a bath becomes absolutely necessary. If you are extremely lucky, then you may just have one of the very few cats who actually likes water. (It does happen, I used to have a cat who had to be physically prevented from attempting to share the bath with anyone who occupied it)

Failing that, the next most ideal scenario would be that you have a cat who's been introduced to baths in a positive way as a kitten. That said, it is possible, when handled properly, that even an inexperienced cat can be bathed without much stress or injury for those involved.

Have you ever bathed a newborn baby? It's very similar to bathing a cat.

Your cat, like the baby, has no command of verbal language and so can neither express fear or discomfort, nor can s/he understand, beyond the level of tone of voice, any verbal reassurances that you make. It also responds strongly on a primal level to anything that it doesn't understand or that frightens it. Yet, when approached in the proper manner, a baby learns to accept and even to enjoy its bath and this is perfectly possible for your cat too.

Please bear in mind that the method I am describing for the rest of this article, is only suitable for a cat or kitten who is well used to being handled. I would not recommend that you try to bath a less tame cat, instead, take it to the vet for advice if you are worried about it ingesting a harmful substance by cleaning, or if you have doubts about its ability to clean itself.

The first thing you need to do, is to prepare yourself and your working space. Your bathroom sink, or a baby-bath in the bathroom is the best way to go, but regardless of where you intend to bathe your cat, the windows and doors should be securely closed and anything particularly hazardous to an upset cat, or breakable, should be stowed away somewhere safe. Also, if you're working in the bathroom, you should ensure that the toilet lid is down, to avoid the chances of your cat falling into it if s/he becomes distressed.

For sake of arguement, let me describe the process I use for bathing my cats in the bathroom sink.

 * Once the bathroom is secured and breakables (like houseplants) out of the way and the toilet seat is down and checked, the room

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