Remarkably tolerant Maine Coon submits to being professionally groomed

"Giant Maine Coon cat ATTACKS groomer". The title to this video, with one section in capitals for emphasis, is misleading. It gives the impression that this affable and remarkably tolerant Maine Coon is aggressive and difficult. The true picture is far from it. He accepts a lot of human activity which domestic cats really don't like. Professional groomers do things to cats which they inherently don't understand and dislike. Let's remind ourselves that domestic cats, in an ideal world, do not need grooming by people. They are well able to do it themselves.

Tolerant Maine Coon accepts a lot of things that they dislike or hate at a professional grooming parlour. Screenshot.

The trouble with the Maine Coon cat in general is that their fur is long and it can become matted. Matting can be irritating to a cat and it can create health problems. Removing matting can also create health problems if it is done by the owner and they use scissors! You just have to be incredibly careful. I have a page on that.

The professional groomer removes his matted fur with a shaver which is certainly much safer. For an owner, it might be difficult to see matted fur because, for example, in this case some of it was in the armpit. By and large he accepted all this activity but he did nip the groomer on occasions. However, it wasn't a particularly aggressive bite. It was more a warning to stop. In response she put an Elizabethan collar around his head which worked nicely.

He accepts being soaked in water and being washed and then dried. I think he is a remarkably tolerant Maine Coon cat. I would be surprised if the average domestic cat was any better when being professionally groomed. And I would expect many to be a lot worse. The whole experience might border on the traumatic for some domestic cats.

I would have thought that the only reason why you would take a Maine Coon to a professional groomer would be to remove matting. If there is no matting, I wouldn't do it.

The groomer actually makes a mistake which you might spot in the middle of the video. He attacks her again to use the language of the video (more like a little nip) but in this instance it wasn't even that. This cat wanted to take his fur from the comb. She was combing him and of course fur was stuck on the comb. Domestic cats like to eat their own fur. I'm not sure why but when they groom themselves, they ingest fur which as you know can cause hairballs.

I'm going to state with some caution that they like to eat their own fur because they are simply replicating what they would normally do when they groom themselves. And when the professional groomer is finishing up and he is dry and fluffy, he starts to groom himself. This is because when you pet or comb a cat, they are stimulated into doing the same thing for themselves which translates to licking themselves. And he wants to put his own smells on himself. I am confident that he groomed himself top to bottom when he got home to return himself to normal. Fluffy, nice smelling cat coats please humans but cats prefer their normal coat except they love a gentle comb which feels good to them.

At the end of the grooming session, she sprayed him with something. I don't know how that worked out. If the cat's caregiver has more than one cat, I would suspect that the other cat would no longer recognise this cat who's been through the professional grooming session. This is because his natural scent has been removed temporarily until it grows back with the oils from his sebaceous glands being deposited on the hair strands.

When a friendly cat no longer recognises the other, they become hostile which is unpleasant to see because they're meant to be friendly. It is just that the hostile cat no longer recognises his friend and thinks that he is an invader into his territory.