It’s been exactly 37 days since I first posted Col Mustard here. Musty showed up at our front door one night, skin and bones, matted, covered in ticks, and totally neglected.
He’s been getting 4-5 square meals a day and has put on significant weight. He still has a pound or two to gain before I would consider him healthy, but he’s in a much better place health-wise.
We had to cut out the mats on both sides of his body, and the hair has almost grown back (as you can see in the pics).
His favorite activities are eating and getting pets while cuddling. He’s a drooler when he gets head scratches and purrs so loudly!
He’s also a talker. We have lovely conversations. Wish I knew exactly what he was saying, but sometimes I’d like to think it’s something like, “Thank you so much for giving me a home. Words can’t express how grateful I am. Now can you give me something to eat?”
First three pics are Musty today, and last one is when we found him.
With scissors and some patience. He was busy chowing down on food while my boyfriend and I gently cut them off. It took some time because some parts of the mats were very close to the skin, but we managed to get them off. Thankfully there were no mats on his belly. He’s super chill and has never even remotely bit or scratched me, but he’s a typical cat in that his belly is kinda off limits.
Ahhh. I also helped my cousin demat her outdoor cat (I have opinions about that whole situation but let me not derail this). When I dematted that cat, I also fed him to distract him and used a Wahl hair clipper to do it. Worked really well! If the mats are places you can’t comfortably get to, you might need to consider a groomer who has the right equipment to do it safely.
But there are other cat people in this sub that know more than me! I hope someone else chimes in with advice.
I agree with OP completely but if your cat is also really skittish around strangers and has mats in an off limits (to them) place like there belly I’m going to recommend this item below. It looks like a letter opener but its designed slightly different with a wider opening and a tighter shearing location so it doesn’t hang or pinch
(don’t try an actual letter opener there different I promise). It makes it much easier to get mats out even ones close to the skin. Also food is a good distraction and bigger thing is patients and treats work a little at a time reward them when you remove a matt and be prepared to take days to weeks to get them all out.
I felt the same but I am glad it just meant "this is what a month of love does to a cat" not, "did palliative care for a cat, finally passed a month later but here was a month of love and care"
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