Hairball Awareness and a Winner!

Today is National Hairball Awareness Day — and it’s also the day I announce the winner of my Furminator Fur Measure Contest! To recap, my human Furminated Boodie, which resulted in a massive pile of fur:

Your challenge was to guess just how long this pile of fur was. I measured it myself very carefully to make sure everything was in order.

But before I announce the winner, I want to mention a few things about hairballs. The Furminator people supplied us with some facts about hairballs and cats — you can read them at Sweet Praline’s blog and at Jan’s Funny Farm, among others. Instead of just repeating that, I’ll share some things we’ve learned about hairballs around here, from long experience:

• Grooming is key. The better my human is about grooming us cats, the less we gift her with hairballs. Can I just mention that there’s been a lot less hairball action since we were all Furminated in the past month? So brush us kitties regularly, and use the Furminator de-shedding tool for the undercoat. (By the way, a Somali breeder wanted me to remind my readers to never Furminate a Somali cat’s fluffy tail — you will strip the fluff out of it and it might not grow back! My human still Furminates the rest of me, which feels great!) After brushing or Furminating, make sure you also get rid of the extra loose hair, either by combing it out or rubbing us down with a chamois or terry cloth. Otherwise, we’ll groom it off ourselves… and ta-da! Another hairball.
• Diet goes a long way in helping reduce hairballs. I’m not talking about that special hairball food the vet sells or that you find at the pet store. I’m talking about a high-quality, high protein, grain-free diet, either primarily canned or all canned food. That’s what Binga and Boodie eat. (If you do raw, so much the better.) Unfortunately, I don’t like the grain-free cat foods, so my human supplements my still-premium-but-not-grain-free food with a digestive aid tablet from Vet’s Best, which she crushes and adds to my food. Since I’ve been getting these, I’ve had way less hairballs! Incidentally, it’s non-petroleum based, which is better for me, and for the planet.
• We drink water and like it. That’s because we have a Drinkwell water fountain. It keeps the water fresher tasting and it’s kind of fun. Being well hydrated helps the fur to move through our systems more efficiently.

But enough about that – I’m sure you want to know how big Boodie’s fur pile was! My human measured it and here it is:

1′ 7-1/4″ comes to 19-1/4″ total. A few of you came close, but nobody hit it exactly! One human did come within millimeters, however, and that one is:

Dreamybee!

Dreamybee said, “Based on very scientific observations and a lot of math, I’m going to go with 19 1/3″. I almost believe her comment about scientific observations and math because she was very close! Dreamybee, my human will be contacting you for your address so the Furminator people can send you your prize! (Incidentally, she is not registered at my blog so she doesn’t get the extra item. I will save it for another contest.)

Concatulations, Dreamybee, and thanks to the Furminator humans and Romeo for making this contest possible!