The second best Freecycle ever!

Of course, the best freecycle was my tree giveaway last year. We had a tree blow down in our back yard during a windstorm. It was a cedar of Lebanon--about eight foot tall. It didn't snap when it tipped over, it just upended the root ball. I could not convince either Bill or Carl that the tree was worth trying to re-plant. I think in their minds, if it was going to be such a tipsy wuss, it didn't deserve to live. That left us (me) with the problem of getting rid of it...

So I posted the tree on Freecycle, offering it to anyone who would finish digging it out and haul it away. I had seven requests for the tree and it was gone within two hours. No one believed I could do it! For sheer audaciousness, I still believe the tree clean-up takes the cake, but a post I read on Freecycle today comes in a VERY close second! This is it, word for word--

"I need someone to shave my poor kitty. He is a long haired gray cat that is getting matted and he is very unhappy. I can't afford 70 dollars to have it done. If you could help us out we would greatly appreciate it."

This just begs several questions, but the foremost has to be, "Will anyone respond? And what kind of nut job might they be?"

You can't see him, but right now Bill is pointing at me. I have actually shaved a cat and, yes, you have to be insane to try it.


When we lived in Oxnard, we had a cat named Fred. Fred was a broad-shouldered, tough-minded tom cat. Our current cat, Oso, is also a male cat, but not from the same mold as was Fred. Oso is Ashley Wilkes. Fred was Rhett Butler.





Fred came home one day from a particularly exciting field trip, one ear torn, several bite wounds and a deep gash in his side. This was in the days when we were still putting food in the mouths of children and couldn't afford to buy groceries for veterinarians, too. So I called my dad for his advice. Having grown up with farm cats, I knew that he would have some practical advice. He claimed that on the farm when a cat was injured they would shave the cat's fur and pour kerosene on the wounds to cauterize them and kill any infection. It made perfect sense to me...

While Bill shielded the eyes of the children, I donned a pair of leather gloves, grabbed the hair clippers and wedged a very angry Fred between my knees. Shaving a cat is harder than bathing a cat which is neither fun nor easy. When I was done, I held him while Bill poured on the kerosene. Fred shot straight up in the air. He landed several feet away and never stopped running. Days later, he came home with his wounds nearly healed. Fred went on to live a long and exciting life. And I eventually recovered from my injuries, as well.