Our cat Reggie Miller was a real small runt when compared to his litter, when we got him his body was so much smaller than his head that it made his ears look huge, and when he ate it was in a “panic” as he tried to eat everything as fast as he could and since he was the youngest of 4 we made sure he knew the anarchy and he would have to wait his turn and we made sure he always got his turn so it was something he learned. He was also the longest haired cat so that meant he was often the dirtiest, and for some reason his front claws all were “splintered”, even to this day, and his eye’s tear up twice as much as a normal cat, the vet said its like a constant runny nose for a cat, no real big deal, just annoying and nasty looking so he was often the “dirt ball” cat.
When he was about a year old his fur just kept getting worse and worse, even matted together, we would have to bath him once a month to manage it and his claws were all a deep nasty brown around his claws and he HATES his toes to be touched, so we just thought he was in pain so we took him to a vet who said it may be a rash and his body just creates more oil than average so he would just be a “dirt ball”.
After months of baths and vet visit’s (when we was dirt poor) I finally figured out why he was such a “dirt ball”…
I grew up in Indiana and as with most midwesterners we either boiled or fried everything, so it was somewhat common to have a old soup can on/near the stove full of old grease from fried chicken or whatever, you just drained the grease into the old can and when it was full and cold, you threw it away so when Pauline and I got together we had our own “grease can”.
Reggie was jumping on the stove at night and reaching into the grease can and scratching the grease with his claws and licking it off and since his mouth was so greasy when he groomed himself he just licked the oil onto his fur…
I got thinking of this tonight as I watched him stand next to the food dish and reaching into the dish and grabbing the raw meat I put into it and eating it from his paw so he wouldn’t have to be troubled with bending over…
Stoopid cat….
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