Sponge bathing the cat
Ming is a very strange cat. Among his many strangenesses is that he actually enjoys getting wet… well, when it’s a hot day, anyway. He doesn’t cope well with the heat (probably something to do with his black coat), and always looks totally miserable when the temperature goes into the 30s. I discovered the solution by accident one hot day, when I accidentally dripped some water on him, and he didn’t shake it off like he normally would. So I dripped a bit more, and he still sat there, then I tried cupping some water in my hand and dribbling it over him, and he started purring! He doesn’t like getting *too* wet, but with a bit of trial and error we came up with the concept of a cat sponge bath, which he absolutely loves: I soak an old face cloth in cold water, and rub his fur with it, while he just sits there enjoying the cool (and the fussing!) and purring like mad. He ends up looking totally damp and bedraggled, but a lot more comfortable.
Here he is tonight just after his first sponge bath of the summer (it got up to 30 today, which is way too hot for this early in the summer, especially for a cat who hasn’t finished moulting yet):
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In other news, work is progressing on the sunflowers, but there’s still a long way to go:
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Off on an adventure tomorrow, with a witch, a ballycumber, several Reader’s Digests, and 32 copies of Tom Sawyer. More when I get back…
What might a ballycumber be? I picture an umbrella with a cucumber for the pole.