Can you tell which kitty in the image below is my Denali? There are pictures of her in the pet section if you need help.

Okay, have you made your selection and are ready to give your final answer? Good. Now if you said the kitty on the left, you’re right! If you said the kitty on the right, well, you’re also right! Confused? Both frontal shots are Denali, before and after I got trim happy with the clippers! Every year me and Denali go through this ordeal. It get’s a bit too warm in New Mexico for long haired pets to comfortably enjoy the summer, especially those who like to spend large quantities of time outdoors like Denali does. Dehydration and heat exhaustion are real possibilities for pets, children, and the elderly here since the heat rises early in the day and holds constant until sun down.

So every May when the temperatures begin to rise Denali and I go into the bathroom, the door is shut, the window cracked open to allow in a nice breeze to alleviate the stifling heat and provide brief gusts of respite for my suffering allergies as bits of fluffy fur float in the air. An hour later we both emerge, Denali looking as though she’s a Jenny Craig spokescat, myself covered in bits of fluff and looking like a distant cousin of Big Foot. Even though Denali is always visibly relieved and grateful with the results she utterly despises the process and lets me know this in a very vocal and physical manner. But hey I love her.

Admittedly the process went by much faster and easier this year and I think the events of last summer played a big role in winning her over to the process. Her hair doesn’t grow back too fast and so if I trim her hair down in the beginning of May then quick touch up is required at towards the end of June that carries her all the way until the beginning of August when the temperatures become much more bearable. Last summer though was the exception as New Mexico was bombarded with heavy rains on a nearly daily basis. As a result of the unusual precipitation what should have been the more comfortable summer days became utter hell.

The heat remained a constant not to mention it was higher than normal. We remained in the triple digits long after we normally would have dropped to the mid and high 90′s. The heat was only alleviated when the skies opened up and flooded (literally) the desert area. While the rain itself brought a pleasant respite the time before and after it rained were pure torture. We’re talking an ungodly amount of humidity in an area accustomed to high levels of dry heat. Completely unbearable. Denali pretty much spent her time flat on the cool tile of the kitchen or bathroom or plastered to the floor where the air vents would hit here. Eventually I had to break down and cut her fur off again despite how close we were to the fall starting up. That was the only time I had a completely pliant and maliable kitty to work with. Scary.

This time around it became apparent Denali really appreciated what I was doing but of course she couldn’t make things too easy for me. When I’d finished trimming her hair I was tempted to grab a scale and weigh it, I filled up half of a plastic grocery sack with her hair! This time around, since we’ve already experianced a return of the unusual rain and thunderstorms here (we even had a tornado touch down at White Sands!) I did a much more thorough job this year. Hey, this is my third year doing this – practice makes perfect – I trimmed around her face much better as well as her tail (thinned the fur down there) and her legs. Denali is picky about her tail and legs so usually I refrained from doing much in those areas but this time she got a thorough hair cut and she seems to be happy with it too.

Well sort of. After I’d swept up the bathroom floor for loose tufts of fur I turned back around to see Denali nuzzeling the plastic sack that had her fur in it. I guess the vainglorious side of my kitty mourns the loss of her pretty and shiny pelt while the more practical side realizes and acknowledges the necessity of it.

It was fun to see Isis’ reaction though. Isis was asleep in my room and likely attributed Denali’s fuss to getting a bath or something along those lines. The poor old kitty looked like she might have a heart attack when she saw who jumped up on the bed next to her! At first Isis reacted in the manner she does with any new cat in her territory then she stopped and her eyes nearly popped out of their sockets when she realized who was before her. After that she proceeded to groom Denali herself all the while purring and seemingly trying to reassure herself that it really was Denali. My little old lady can be such a riot at times. She’s just too adorable for words.