This morning I took a look at Sad Eyes’ behind, saw that he was caked with poo, and made the hard decision.
I was going to have to give him a bath, because there’s just no way all that stuff dried to his tail and the area surrounded his behind was going to come off with just a damp cloth. I filled the spud’s bathroom sink with lukewarm water, made sure I had everything I needed, put the rubber gloves on and went in to get him. I picked him up and held him close, and he immediately began purring really loudly.
He did not, you won’t be surprised to find, much care for having a bath. But he also didn’t fight me as much as I thought he might, and it only took a few minutes of gentle bathing to get 99% of the poo off of him. My mistake was leaving the bathroom door open, so Miz Poo heard the sad little crying kitten and jumped up next to the sink to see what kind of torture I was performing. I picked him up to put him on the towel and dry him, but once he got his claws in my shirt, he climbed up me and ended up hanging on to my back. I grabbed the towel and walked to the kitten room, then bent down so he could jump off me, and then I grabbed him with the towel and rubbed him mostly dry.
I totally should have brought the camera upstairs with me, because there’s just nothing so pathetic looking as a wet cat. Next time, I’ll try to remember.
While Sad Eyes was being consoled by his brothers and sister, I cleaned the spud’s sink and counter with bleach and water, then dried everything. Then it was back into the kitten room to put them all in the carrier. I put the carrier in the spud’s room and shut her door, then went back into the kitten room with my bucket of bleachy water and a thousand rags. I honestly expected it to only take me about twenty minutes to scrub out the litter box, vacuum the room, and wipe everything down with a bleach solution, but it took me more like 45 minutes. When everything was clean as it could be and I went to get the kittens to put them back in their room, they were all snuggled up in the carrier, dozing. When I put them back in their room and opened the door to the cat carrier, they came out and sniffed around for a little while before flopping down and dozing off. Which gave me enough time to pull the towel out of the carrier, scrub the carrier down, and put a clean towel in the carrier.
Then I started a new load of laundry, took a shower, vacuumed the entire upstairs, and carried all the trash in the upstairs down to the garbage can.
So, that’s been my day thus far, and it’s not even noon. I think I need a nap.
Smitty, asleep in the sun.
Sad Eyes suggests that I put the camera away before he comes over and puts it away for me. (If you look closely, you can see a smear of amoxicillin across the bridge of his nose. I have no idea how it got there.)
Barrett licks the water off his lips.
Little Cal, up close. I love the orange stripes on the side of her face.
Little Cal in the sun.
Barrett, keepin’ sharp.
They LOVE that toy.
The adorable Little Cal.