How You Look Shouldn’t Dictate How You Feel
Lessons in self-confidence from a lion cut
When I was a kid, my grandmother’s long-haired Persian cat needed to have her fur shaved. The front and sides of her coat had become matted so she could no longer be brushed.
This thick, fluffy cat came home from the groomer a changed animal. The groomer was able to save the fur on her back legs and tail, but everything from the hips to the head was gone. She was a skinny, hairless cat that looked like she was wearing a poofy pair of pantaloons.
We couldn’t help it. We laughed at her. And she spent the next two weeks hiding under a bed, only sneaking out to eat and use the litter box when we were all asleep.
Our elder cat recently had something similar done, for the same reason. (She needed to be knocked out to take care of a horn paw, so we took advantage.) She got a lion cut, where everything from the shoulders back was shaved. Unlike my grandmother’s cat, though, our cat had self-confidence.
She wasted no time in letting our little cat know that, even if she was funny looking, she was still in charge. I snapped the above picture today as she sat on her cat wheel, demanding extra treats for her morning jog. I caught her just as she was turning to get down to business.
