Today is National Hairball Awareness Day!

The FURminator and Romeo the Cat are  here to help us Cats say

Hasta la vista to Hairballs!

Many of you know that I am not fond of being brushed.  I know, I know, you have told me now Gracey, my kitty just loves being brushed and that they will just let you brush and brush and brush.  Well until my mom started using the FURminator Short Hair Small Cat deShedding Tool, I rated brushing right up there with ear cleaning and nail trimming. ~shiver~

Then our Friend Romeo the Cat suggested that we try  the FURminator. When it arrived at our habitat , I knew it was for me as soon as it came out of the box because it was a pretty pink color and my mom said oh, Gracey look what came in the mail like I should be excited too. But then the strangest thing happened. My mom started brushing me and it actually felt good.  Honest it did. I even stretched out long so that she could brush me all down my sides.

Even though I am a domestic short hair, you should have seen the fur coming off of me.  And the more that came off the better I started to feel too.  I even let my mom brush my chest and belly! Romeo was right about the FURminator and he has a lot more fur than me so he knows what he is talking about!

So I decided to investigate the FURminator a little more to see if I could find out why I liked to be brushed with it’s deShedder tool.  Here is what I found out.

The FURminator removes the undercoat  along with other loose hair but it doesn’t damage or cut our topcoat. This helps us grow and maintain a healthy coat.

It is important to help us get rid of our loose hair because up to 2/3 of our shed hair can be ingested when we self-groom.  Our sandpaper like tongues are made to help us clean ourselves but it is not healthy for us to ingest so much hair.

A hairball is usually a ball of compacted fur, but sometimes they include food and a coating of mucus. ~shiver~ Once, my dad forgot to put on his slippers and he stepped right on one of Hazel’s hairballs.  It squished between his toes and he started hacking like he was going to cough one up himself.  My mom and I tried not to laugh but we couldn’t help it. He was dancing and hacking, it was quite a scene.  Anyway…

Hairballs are uncomfortable for us cats and can cause us serious problems. They can  cause us to regurgitate and vomit, become constipated or get diarrhea,  develop intestinal obstructions and lose our appetites. Not good.

What I like about the FURminator deShedding tool the most is that it PREVENTS the hairball from developing because using a FURminator just 10 minutes twice per week gently removes 90% of the loose hair and undercoat before we have a chance to swallow the hair.  90%! we cats can say  hasta la vista baby to hairballs.

This is a safe, effective and a non-invasive way to prevent hairballs from forming in the first place. Super Hurrah!

So my mom began to collect my hair in a plastic bag. Bad Kitty and I both thought this was a little unusual. But then she told me that we were participating in National Hairball Awareness Day and that we were going to make a Hair Creature out of the hair that I shed while being brushed with the FURminator.   We thought about our hair creature and then I came up with the idea to put an updo hairstyle on one of my dad’s marshmallow peeps!

After I got the updo hairstyle, I thought the peep needed some sunglasses.  Then I decided to go with a Hawaiian theme because I was missing the sun from all of these rainy days.  I present to you , PENELO-PEEP!  You can see Amazing Hairball Creatures made by our Friends on Peoplepets.com.

Now this gave me an idea.  I have a lovely purple FURminator deShedding tool still in the package in our office. So I thought, why not have my Friends, create hair creatures of their own and then post them on our The Tiniest Tiger Facebook page!  I will then post them here on our Conservation Cub Club to keep the in a single gallery and one lucky  Friend will win the FURminator to try for themselves and become a Triple T Reporter!

This is the hair creature that Romeo the Cat created.  You can use your imagination and create  your own hair creature and give it a name.

1)Just leave a comment here telling me that you are starting to collect hair in a plastic bag and that you plan to participate.

2) When your creature is ready, upload a photo to our The Tiniest Tiger facebook page.

3) You will be entered into the drawing to win your own FURminator!

4) Let’s try to have the hair creatures ready by May 15, 2011.

FURminator Professional Pet Products sent me the Short Hair Small Cat deShedding Tool to try at no charge.