Cat vs Lava Lamp

[Speed_Gibson]

This is the epic tale* of a grey cat versus a lava lamp that was sitting serenely on a dresser.
Lessons learned from the encounter (at least one of these was obvious enough without first-hand experience) include the following:

0) Lava lamp fluid smells sweet and strongly of keresone when spilled onto carpet and take at least 3-4 days to air out. The animal will of course choose the coldest time of the year to fumigate the room and give cause to leave a window open.
1) It is neither wise or healthy to give a cat a bath unless absolutely necessary. A handy pet carrier is useful for the hosedown and a good outcome is having only one ruined plastic glove and very minor scratches. It should not be a surpise if death threats are received from said cat after completing bath. Full body armour is advisable, a suit of armour should be worn if possible.
2) The cat may come back to the house after 12 hours, very likely for the food. This will give enough time for most the of the noxious odour from the lava lamp fluid bath to dissipate (if only the carpet did the same); the cat in this case showed no long-term effects from the exposure after trying to clean itself it off first. (the general list of ingredient in those lamps is downright nasty to read)

the short term winner of this battle was the lava lamp as the feline was god-awful miserable for several hours afterwards, but the cat won the final round. Unforunately the Rotti lost the use of his couch at night as his owners used the hide-a-bed sofa.


*"epic tale" here means "damn cat prowling around house at 4 in the morning, climbing on dressers, and considering jumping into bassinet where sleeping baby will love to wake up and cry"

[MoonDog]

Epic tale indeed! You were lucky to escape with enough digits to type this missive!

[MSD]

I sympathize with you. I tried to bathe a cat once. Let's just say that the simple fact that a jacket was good enough to protect our troops from nerve gas in Desert Storm I does not mean that the chemical barrier and two layers of fabric are enough to keep a cat's claws out of the shoulder after you pour V8 over him in an attempt to remove skunk spray. I still have scars and the cat smelled like skunk until the day he died.

[snowy]

Bathing cats is a difficult proposition at best. I've only owned one cat who actually didn't mind the bath very much, so long as it was in the utility sink, and not the full-size tub. He didn't care for the tub. Now I own two cats who are sisters, and if you try to bathe one, the other will yowl loudly on the other side of the door while attempting to claw the door down.

I am glad to hear the cat is okay! And yes, the weather is frickin' cold! I don't know what it is where you are, but I'm in Central Oregon at the moment and it's 13 degrees outside.