Showing a Ladycat

Friends, today is a day of necessary evils that I put up with firstly because I know I have to, and secondly because it means that I end up looking like the most beautifulest ladycat I possibly can be. Yep, today is the day I get prepared for show, and it takes such a very, very long time! I know I've told you about this before, but I also know I have new friends now who may not have seen those mewsings. This time though, even if you've read about preparation before, there's something new! I've got lots and lots of pictures to show you! So, here goes.

The human always follows a similar routine for getting me ready for show, and it usually starts a week before the actual date. This time though, it's going to be only four days before, as I'm going to show on Saturday. Incidentally, if any of you are closish to London and want to come see me, then let me know and I'll tell you how! Sorry, I can't reveal where I will be on here, cuz if a judge read it, they would disqualify me for identifying myself to them before the show started. I know some of you live relatively close though, and I'd love to meet you!

Anyway, back to my story. The show preparation starts normally with a bath. This used to be a relatively simple process before the human learned more about what she should have been doing. It used to be only a quick suds up and rinse in baby shampoo, but now? Oh for the return of those simpler times!

She wets me down with a shower while I sit in the tub. When you're bathing somebody with as much hair as me, you gotta make sure you get right down to the undercoat, and this isn't an easy job! Unfortunately, this means that all the floofiness leaves my fur and leaves me looking a little, well, there's no other word for it, bedraggled. I'm sure you can see this from the picture. I also get very cold, so the human has to make sure the water is nice and hot and that the house is well heated and free from drafts before I go in there, as otherwise, I'll shiver.

once I'm wet, she needs to de-grease my coat. Even though I don't look greasy, there's grime and dirt in my floof that even my eye can't see! There are a number of different things you can use for this, and all it takes is an application and a rinse. The human won't tell you what it is, as we don't want this blog to turn into a product recommendation type place!

After this step, she applies an anti-fungal shampoo to me. The smell of this lingers right down deep, and prevents any nasties from deciding I'd be good to live on whilst I'm at the show. It's more a preventative than anything, but the human feels better knowing that I'm less likely to pick anything up. unfortunately, this has to be left on for ten minutes. This is the worst part of the bath. I don't get cold, cuz the human puts me in a horrid PTU right by the radiator with a towel over it to keep in the heat. it actually gets quite steamy in there! I complain all the while though, as I always do at even the sight of a PTU. I hate the things, Ok? They're my excuse to sing!
 
Once I come out of there, it's back in the bath for another quick rinse. And this is where the fun starts. Do you remember a few days ago I asked if you'd ever seen a purple ladycat? Well, you're just about to! The next shampoo my human uses is a colour enhancer. It doesn't dye my coat or anything, but it does make the colours more dazzling to the eye. It makes my ivory white whiter and gives my seal tortie face, feed and tail lots more tortitude! At least, that's my excuse for showing tortitude later on that day. This stuff is purple! See? Doesn't it look weird? I wonder if I'd get points for being the only purple cat at the show!   This stuff rinces off real easy, and so does the last shampoo the human uses, which is a texturiser. This gives my floof loads of extra volume, and when it's all dry, much more floofiness for the judge peoples to fuss over! It smells nice to the human too, but I have to say, I don't care about it one way or the other.

When I'm done cuddling, the human unwraps me and spreads the dry part of the towel on her lap. Then it's time for the drying and the combing. This is the only part of the bath that I show an active dislike for, and the human knows it. She says if she had more moneys she'd buy me a cabinet dryer which is like a PTU with gentle blasts of air that come out from all over, but they cost a lot, so we don't have one. Instead, I get to be dried by an uber powerful hair dryer with that all important cool air setting. This dryer is so powerful that it literally blows the water out of my fur. The human combs my coat forward when she's drying it, just to add a little extra volume. I often give her a bitey during this bit, but it's just to remind her who's boss when she's trying to dry my back legs and my lady bits! I can't have her thinking she can do that unchallenged!

Drying takes about half an hour, and by the time that's done, I am hopefully looking floofy and glorious! That aside though, there's only one thing for a ladycat to do after enduring all of that torture... Eat treats! These are some of the yummy ones sent by everyone at House of Cats, and I ate loads and loads of them! Can you tell how much I'm enjoying them? I have my human trained to always give me treats after a bath, cuz I deserve them! Well, I deserve them all the time! Do you hear me, human?

As you can see, a lot goes into making me look my best, and while it's a pain in the proverbial, I understand the necessity. Later this week, the human will put talc in my fur to make it extra big and floofy, and will clip my nails so that they are looking their best on the day of the show. On Friday, I will show you a picture of me all floofed up and ready to go.

I hope you enjoyed my bath more than I did! Happy Tuesday!