Doing what we don’t enjoy, because it must be done.
So, I have a sixteen-year-old cat. She's a sweet old cat. My sister rescued her when she was a tiny four- or five-week old light colour kitten one night about sixteen years ago and gave the kitten to me to raise. In fact at the end of that same week she had rescued another kitten which she also gave to me, but that one was possibly only a day old at the time and had been abandoned by its mother. That kitten is a story for another day.
Now, back to the light colour kitten. At sixteen-years-old she’s getting on in years, and poor girl, she has developed arthritis in her paw joints, which makes cleaning herself very difficult. I think she actually is in too much pain from her arthritis combined with a lack of agility to do much washing at all lately. On top of that, as a light colour cat, she has also developed a skin condition that results in a build-up of thick black scab-like patches in places where she has had a prior minor skin injury. This black scab-like stuff also forms between her toe-pads (or toe beans) because, as she stopped grooming herself she also stopped keeping her claws in check, and those claws continue to grow until they hurt her paws between the toes. So, I have to help her. I do help her, because I love my sweet little cat.
The part I do not enjoy... I love her, but I don’t love washing her. Bathing a cat when they are healthy and vibrant is already a bit scary, because many cats do not enjoy being bathed in water. But, I have to bath her and clip her nails now in her old frail predicament, because she cannot do it herself. Never-the-less, I bath her, which, requires me to take hold of my fear of being ripped to shreds by a cat who does not want to be bathed. But also because I have to put aside the part in my mind that does not want to touch the ickiness, such as clipping her nails or touching that black scab-like stuff. Despite how I feel about it I have to do it anyway. Very eww!
In case you have not guessed, I am not a professional cat groomer, but I do love my cat, and I have a pretty good idea of what needs to be done. Shout out to those people ‘with a calling’ to be pet groomers, and who do such a professional job with such compassion! However, I am not a professional pet groomer, and have never before tried to wash a cat completely by myself. On top of that, my old girl is frail, so I have to act quickly before she gets too cold or too stressed, but I also have to treat her as gently as possible so that she doesn't get injured or injure herself. After washing, I dry her well with a towel, and then keep her in a warm comfortable bedroom where she can’t go outside and immediately roll in the sand before she is completely dry. I brush her fur to prevent matting, and have a chance to talk reassuringly to her to let her know that I truly am not the enemy.
Eventually, after having done these things a few times. So, after a few dramatic washes and nail clippings, I realised that my set-up needed a bit of an improvement. For one thing, I couldn’t have her cat hair clogging up by bathroom basin drain again, that is not fun to deal with. That is another icky thing that I really do want to avoid. So, upgrade A was to get a bigger portable basin. Upgrade B was to wash her in that portable basin in the other bigger bathroom where I would have more space to move around as well. Upgrade C was to get Nitrile gloves so that I could handle my frail kitty without having to directly touch the ickiness. Those upgrades together do seem to have made things a bit better.
My old cat was even far more behaved than I had expected. Never-the-less, she still had a lot of loud choice words for me. However, she didn't jump out of the bigger basin, or even try to jump out of the empty bath that I put her in when I took the portable basin outside to empty it into the garden. As part of my upgrades, I also decided to empty the basin directly in the garden to avoid the plumbing so that I can avoid the otherwise inevitable cat hair from clogging up the drain. I am pleased to say, that with our latest bathing experience I was able to successfully wash her, clip her nails, towel-dry her, place her in a warm safe bedroom to get completely dry, brush her hair, talk gently to her, and empty the portable basin no less than three times. However it was successful. I still did not enjoy bathing her or clipping her nails, but the experience went better, and I'm happier. And, I'm sure my cat is happier about it too.
Helping my old cat feel obviously better is, and always has been, worth it, but at least now I can do an important job which includes some icky parts, without having to touch that icky stuff directly myself. That definitely makes me feel happier too.
My point is this. Sometime we have to do things we don't enjoy. It may be a house-hold chore. It may be a task at work. It may be a duty that we are obligated to perform. It may be a project that needs to be completed, but to complete it you need to work through an icky step or two. Whatever it may be, sometimes it is unavoidable to get through life without having to do an icky job or job you don't enjoy. You just have to do it anyway. In those cases, there is no reason why you can't try to mitigate the ickiness, like wearing Nitrile gloves, and sometimes even then you may require a bit of 'mind over matter' or 'mind over task', and just be self-disciplined enough to push through it and get that job done.
Be brave my friends! It isn't always enjoyable, but it might still be important to do. You can do it!