For his future forever home, please note that he does not do well with getting a bath.
Good news: it's the first time I have ever bathed a cat and not gotten a single new bite or scratch. He didn't fight at all, just sad-meowed while we soaped him up and rinsed him off.
Bad news: Once we took him out and started to towel him off, he started growling and hissing like a terror. He continued to do so for several hours. He holds a grudge!
Even two days later he was still intermittently growling and hissing. At us, at police sirens outside, at a door, at whatever happens to be in front of him when he gets a little freaked out or suddenly remembers he's holding a grudge.
At first I thought it was the smell in his fur of other cats that he kept smelling and thought he was surrounded by invisible enemies, but it continued after he had dried off.
He isn't hiding at all, in fact he seems to be making it a point to be in the same room as us. He's very much like his usual goofy self, rolls around and shows us his belly, accepts pettings and being picked up, plays like a champ...and then at irregular intervals he'll start growling, hissing, and making empty threats of attack (lunges and threatens to bite, but doesn't cause any harm). A few seconds later he either forgets or gets distracted and life goes on.
It could be that having CH makes his senses dull or contributes to him being a little bit confused most of the time (which might explain why he seems to be comforted by touch, so chill about being picked up, and isn't excited about canned food, treats, or catnip). And/or it could be that because of his condition he feels vulnerable all the time and the bath really threw him for a loop, so he puts on a big scary show so nobody finds out that he's really not scary at all.
I don't feel at all threatened by him, even when he growls and lunges, I just feel bad that he's so upset and is having such a hard time getting over it.
I don't think I've ever seen a cat growl and close his eyes at the same time, it's very confusing.
Here's a perfect example.
It's the night after the bath, and this happened:
Fifteen seconds after the video stops, he growled but made no effort to move, and started grooming himself.
A minute later he growled some more, attacked a sleeve (without causing any actual harm), and got up to growl at us from across the room. 30 seconds after that, he was silently grooming himself and then lay down to doze in the middle of the room.
Mr. Magoo is being fostered in Cambridge, MA through the Gifford Cat Shelter. Please contact them if you are interested in adopting him!
