I've had a new cat grooming customer today. She'd got in contact to book up cat-sitting for her cats over Christmas, but asked about grooming as well as she has a persian who hates being groomed and has to be sedated at the vets for shaving quite often. Added to that she had a groomer come to the house one time, who gave the cat a sedative
(think its actually illegal for anyone other than a vet or the owner to do that) and pinned the cat down to groom - in the end the owner asked her to leave. All this has left the cat unable to be groomed properly. The cat is getting on and constant sedating is not an option anymore so I suggested bringing her to me for 'taster' sessions to try and get her used to grooming.
Anyway, today was just a get to know each other (LOL!) session, a little bit of gentle stroking with a piece of sheepskin (impregnated with felifriend), whilst feeding bits of ham every now and then! Well it worked, and I was even able to run a brush over her, all in all we spent about half and hour, which the customer said was the longest the cat has ever tolerated being groomed, without stress, so I'm really chuffed
Customer is bringing her again next week for another session, so I think we can gradually work up to her being groomed properly without stress over a period of time, and when I look after her over christmas she will already be used to me and I'll hopefully be able to do some more then as well.
