Pet Grooming

[toseeyouinblack.livejournal.com]

My normally indoor medium length hair  kitty got out  of the house a few days ago and spent the night  out in the wilderness of somerville and got into all sorts of trouble. He came back with some sort of awful sticky mess in a lot of his fur,  I've made a few attempts to groom it  all out with my  normal kitty brush but but its gotten so stuck  in there hes mauled me a few times a few times for my trouble and i'm hesitant to take clippers to it to get it all out because i'm afraid of hurting him  also the sheer amount of fur i might have to take off.

i've never needed to have  a pet groomed before  since he usually enjoys being brushed every couple of days and enjoys a damp towel down occasionally. so i don't really know what to look for in grooming services. does anyone know any nice, affordable ones in the davis/porter area that won't scare off a newbie like me?

here s a picture of the little twerp before he had his adventure and got all dirty

Comments

[incandes-flower.livejournal.com]

A little outside of the Davis Square area, but we've used Stinky's in Ball Square for quite a while for our dog. The lady there is quite nice and they usually only handle one of two animals at a time. I think she does cats, too.

[talonvaki.livejournal.com]

Stinky's is awesome, and she not only does cats but she has a longhair she shows (that's the "Stinky" the shop's named after)! So she's really good at cats.

PS your icon (Jon <3 Stephen) is hilarious!

[chairmanmeowmom.livejournal.com]

Most importantly, your kitty is adorable!!

I don't have a groomer Rec for you, but a suggestion. There is a hair removal tool called "The Furminator". It is about $50 and is worth every penny. My long haired Maine Coon gets matted quite frequently and *hates* to be brushed. The Furminator is quite gentle and takes off an amazing amount of hair. You can pick one up at Target or PetCo or PetSmart.

I just realized that this sounds like an ad. I promise that this is true. Chairman Meow wouldn't allow me to lie.

[djethan.livejournal.com]

I second the Furminator. We bought one about a month ago and it's amazing how much fur it removes that would normally start to get matted.

[badseed1980.livejournal.com]

I'll third it. I have a rather long-haired black shed-machine named LucyFur, and it seems like every time I use a Furminator on her, it removes enough fur to cover a kitten. Lucy isn't really fond of it, but she's getting better at putting up with it.

[lunarcamel.livejournal.com]

Oh my God do I love my (cat's) Furminator. Furminating the cat is such a peaceful experience, like one of those little mini-Zen sand gardens.

A word of caution, though: It's basically just a clipper blade attached to a handle, so if you Furminate your cat four times a day because she looooooooooooooves it and it makes her less hairy you will basically shave off all the hair except for the top layer of guard hairs, which can cause a slight skin condition (for the cat) and guilt complex (for the owner) until the undercoat of hair grows back.

[nu-luba.livejournal.com]

i havent used it but my vet, cambridge veternary hair does grooming

[tikva.livejournal.com]

A Pet Spa in Porter (669 Somerville Avenue) is great, although I admit I've only taken a dog there, not a cat. But they do cats.

[opn.livejournal.com]

I cannot ever recommend Alison at Pet Spa enough for cat grooming. I've taken my Persian to various groomers for 6 years and she is the #1 best of the best.

Belmont Pet Shop, may have moved from Common St., had an awesome cat groomer, but she left, so we had to look around. Belmont also kept our cat for 2-3 hours per grooming.

We tried a pet grooming "school" in Medford that was a disaster with no real security for potentially-escaping animals (only one door between the grooming table and the street) and our cat coming home with multiple, ragged cuts that they never mentioned to us. Happily, the cuts eventually healed without infection after we kept them cleaned and salved.

Stinky's was our worst experience (even worse than Medford). We had heard fabulous things about them and they were tormentingly local, so we tried them. Upon my arrival a couple hours after dropping him off, I walked in on two employees complaining about my (normally pretty chill and loving) cat. When I identified myself as his owner, they didn't even have the grace to apologize and told me he had been one of the most horrible cats they'd ever had. They tried to get him out of their holding pen and I've never heard him make noises like that before and certainly had never seen him lash out like that. I asked to do it myself and it took several minutes for me to calm him down enough for me to get him out of their kennel and into my carrier. For the next 2-3 months, he was skittish, wary, easy to startle, quick to swipe his paw at us, prone to hiding -- all behavior that was so against his usual mellow, trusting, sweetheart self.

Pet Spa has been incredible. They schedule two people to do the grooming, so it is too fast for our cat to get agitated; they are usually finished with our lion cut-cat in 20-30 minutes. Either they are very good at false praise, or they really like our cat and appreciate that he has limits. Alison is awesome at communicating about any issues and the shop keeps notes on what you've asked for in the past so you don't have to remember all the fussy details. Our cat always comes home relaxed and perfectly groomed.

[toseeyouinblack.livejournal.com]

oh, i think i've driven by them a number of times. thank you!

[dial-zero.livejournal.com]

He looks like a rascal!