The Willy Files: The Lion King

I have this great cat – an amazing, lovable, squeezable, furry, fluffy hair ball of a cat. His name is Willy. I found him, or should I say he found me nine years ago in a friend’s yard. It was a large yard in the front of the house and there must have been 4 different litters of kittens running around. I guess you could call my friend “the cat lady”. Stray cats found safety and love nesting in her yard’s bushes, nooks, and crannies. At the time, I was cat-less, but had grown up with cats all of my life and thought, why not take one of these little babies in and give them a home. And who could turn down a kitten, really? There I was chasing after a little white fluffy kitten, then a gray striped kitten, and then a calico kitten to no avail – all of them dashing away from me. Then a little orange fluff ball walked up to me, and Willy’s been my best friend ever since.

Back to the premise of this post and the reasoning to all of this lion’s main mayhem – It is simply this, I live in the desert, and it’s hot. REALLY hot. Willy’s been coughing up fur nuggets left and right and lately, and without getting into too many details, having issues keeping his fur clean. You see, his fur has become so dense and long, that things attach to it, if you get my drift.

The lion’s mane was just for our amusement. Poodles get it done, why not cats?

We attempted to shave Willy ourselves four years ago in San Francisco, but failed miserably because his hair was too dense and his temper was short. Four years have passed and the talk of getting Willy shaved “professionally” had finally come to a head.

I’m not sure if I can do this to him again, it was traumatizing for him to have strangers mow down his fur.

I will have to say, he’s LOVING his new “cool” look. He’s no longer lying by the cooler vent to cool off.

No more sleeping in the bathroom sink or bath tub. Willy now walks around with a new found confidence.

I have some horror stories of Willy back in his wild-youth days that would make a grown man cringe, but I’ll save those stories for another time, in the Willy Files.