Whatever you do, don't groom me

Loki and Gemi both didn’t (don’t) mind being brushed. We could never cut Lo’s nails, but the groomer could. Both will/would tolerate a bath if they needed it. Both were not shedders.

It is a different world with Miss Bug. First, she is a shedder. (This would be her most tragic flaw, but we are learning to embrace being covered with dog hair. It is black and matches the cat hair). Currently with the cold weather, she is also very dry and has dandruff. This really means she needs to be brushed more often. She loves to be petted and rubbed and you can touch her feet and take things from her mouth without a problem. So imagine our surprise when we discovered Miss Bug was terrified of a brush. We had a standard pet brush with wire bristles. The first time I tried it, she freaked out and jumped off the couch crying like I had just beaten her. We tried pairing this brush with treats, but it didn’t get better.

So being a semi-reasonable person, I thought, maybe it is the bristles that hurt her. Last weekend while at the pet store spending all my hard earned money on pet supplies, I found a Kong brush. This one has rubber bristles. There is no way this would hurt.  We bought it. We brought it home and about the same thing happened, the freaking out, running away, crying.

I looked at where she had been laying on the couch and realized we desperately needed to brush her. The couch was black (and I vacuumed it yesterday).  Desperate times call for desperate measures. I grabbed a handful of Lee’s fav treats and held them in my hand. She came over to me. I gave her one. While she was trying to get the rest of the cookies out of my hand (which I was slowly releasing) I was able to brush her. She didn’t seem to mind. I am hoping if we do this every day it will get easier!