As you (hopefully) know by now, and I have a lot of animals in my one-bedroom apartment. I’ve written about Tyrone, Luna, and Sirius so far, and now, it is Jasper’s turn. Jasper - also known as Mr. J, Mista Jay (said much differently), J Man, Psycho (depending on the hour), and Jam Master Jay - is my 10-year-old part-Maine Coon cat.
Now, I haven’t done a DNA test on Jasper because 1) he’s a cat and 2) he’s a cat, but my best friend is a veterinarian, and she’s confident that somewhere in his mutt mix is Maine Coon, a particularly fluffy breed. And boy, does Jasper have a lot of fur.
Since Jasper is my furriest cat by far, that means he requires the most brushing. He’d most likely benefit from a trip to the groomer, but I don’t think that would go very well for Jasper, or for the groomer. Lucky for me, he loves it when you brush his fur, so much so that when I brush my own hair, he likes to force his head under the brush to make me use it on him. But while I do share a lot with him with him, I am not willing to share my hairbrush, sorry.
I’ve seen the pet grooming gloves a million times on Facebook and Amazon, and I randomly decided to take the plunge for Jasper’s sake. Okay, it was for me too. I wanted to put a glove on my hand and see if my cat would let me pet him with it. Jasper isn’t huge on being touched without prompting. He prefers to touch me with his paw, usually at 4 AM when I’m asleep. I was pleasantly surprised that he let me pet him with these gloves. He only became a little suspicious that I was doing something besides showing him love when I got near his tail, which is notoriously matted
Turns out, the gloves really do pull a lot of fur off a cat’s body. The 255 silicone tips didn’t seem to annoy Jasper, and while they weren’t as rigid as real brush wires, they did a fine job of grabbing and fur that may be hiding on your cat. I got them solely for Jasper, but since I live with two other cats, I had to test the gloves on them as well. Luna (my tortie) doesn’t shed much at all, while Sirius (my Tuxie) has begun to shed more the older he gets.
They don’t work very well on mats, or areas where I haven’t properly brushed in awhile, and I’d love to see home heavier duty versions. But for regular, low-key brushing (that doubles as a bonding experience), they’ve been a great buy.