Latest / Paws Between Us - Pet Stories, Welfare and Building A Bond / Taming the Fluff: Expert Cat Grooming with Whisker & Coat

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Taming the Fluff: Expert Cat Grooming with Whisker & Coat · Paws Between Us - Pet Stories, Welfare and Building A Bond

• 0:01
  Welcome to the Paws Between Us podcast, co-hosted by best
• 0:05
  friends Natalie and Sasha. We're lifelong animal lovers and proud pet
• 0:09
  parents. Between us, we share our lives with Weaver and Murray and
• 0:13
  Betty the pug. In each episode, we'll dive into the joys and challenges of living
• 0:16
  with our furry companions, sharing honest stories, laughter,
• 0:19
  and maybe some tears. We'll also bring in special guests
• 0:23
  to offer expert-backed tips and proven practices for keeping your pets happy,
• 0:26
  healthy, and loved. Please note, some episodes may touch on
• 0:30
  sensitive topics or contain strong language. Listener discretion is advised.
• 0:34
  Hello. Hello. How are you now? Yeah, I'm all right.
• 0:38
  Thank you very much. Good, good. I'm missing you because
• 0:41
  we spent the other weekend together, didn't we, at the Cat Show Live?
• 0:45
  And now we're back. Well, I'm back home in London
• 0:49
  and you are in Nottingham and— You're in the big smoke.
• 0:53
  Indeed. Indeed. I loved hanging out that weekend.
• 0:56
  Fond memories. It's never long enough. It is never long enough,
• 1:00
  but the good news is we've actually bought tickets for next year, so.
• 1:04
  Yeah, well done, Sash. That's quite exciting. So, I know it's a long,
• 1:08
  a long way away, but, and I'll see you before then.
• 1:12
  Yeah. No, I'd love to go to the London one, but it's clashing with my
• 1:15
  hubby's 50th birthday. Is it? It's the exact day.
• 1:19
  Otherwise I'd be there with bells on, but I can't leave him. I wondered
• 1:23
  why you couldn't come, because I thought it would be nice to have a different,
• 1:27
  well, have a change of scenery, but yeah. Yeah, she's cool. But yeah, that's a
• 1:30
  big birthday then. Yeah, serious,
• 1:33
  serious ageing. And how's Weaver and Murray?
• 1:37
  All good. I swear their eyes are getting bigger and more
• 1:41
  cute because, oh my God, I'm struggling to ignore
• 1:45
  them begging, not begging, because they're not even, well, Weaver begs,
• 1:48
  she makes a little bit of a squeak, but just looking at me for food.
• 1:51
  When they look at me, I'm like, I can't not feed them, but I need
• 1:55
  to like stop it because they'll get hefty. But I go into the kitchen for
• 1:58
  snacks, Weaver and Murray follow me and for snacks and I'm like, well, I'm having
• 2:02
  a snack. How can I deny them a snack? I'm feeding myself.
• 2:05
  I need to feed them. I'm a really bad mum. I'm like that with Betty,
• 2:10
  'cause I'm always in the kitchen having a chocolate biscuit
• 2:13
  or a bit of cheese, or I snack too much, to be honest.
• 2:17
  But, um, yeah, when I go in, Betty follows me and she knows exactly where
• 2:22
  the treat jar is. And she looks at me as if to say exactly what
• 2:25
  you've just said, like, why are you eating and I can't? So. Yeah.
• 2:30
  Yeah. Yeah. We used to have my nana's dog. We used to give him
• 2:34
  treats at nighttime after his dinner, but he was so good
• 2:38
  because we'd count out 10. He knew to count to 10 and then he knew
• 2:41
  when 10 was done, he was not getting any more and he'd walk
• 2:44
  away immediately. No begging and wouldn't sit around for more.
• 2:47
  So clever. But yeah. Very, yeah.
• 2:51
  I mean, it's incredible what they learn. Yeah,
• 2:54
  but Murray Weaver will just sit there and beg for more. Give me more,
• 2:57
  more, more, more. Yeah, but no, they're all right otherwise. What about
• 3:01
  Betty? How's she getting along with things? Yeah, Betty's good. We had
• 3:05
  our weekly laser therapy session yesterday. Um, and she's
• 3:08
  also started hydrotherapy. So we had the first hydro the other week.
• 3:12
  She's gonna have another one next week. Next week they're gonna combine the two.
• 3:16
  So she's gonna have laser first just to loosen things up,
• 3:19
  and then she's gonna have the hydro sort of straight after.
• 3:22
  So yeah, I mean, the, the laser's been really, really good for, I think,
• 3:26
  just easing a bit of tension in her front legs because her back
• 3:30
  legs don't work so well. She carries a lot of the load in her front
• 3:33
  legs and they've become quite stiff. So yeah,
• 3:36
  the, the laser's been really helpful for that. So if they do that first and
• 3:40
  then she gets on the treadmill, because there's like a little treadmill in the water
• 3:43
  that she sort of walks along slowly, but the
• 3:48
  sort of hydro, the water supports her as she walks, so it makes
• 3:52
  walking a lot easier for her and hopefully it's gonna like build up some strength
• 3:56
  in those back legs. She's a lucky girl.
• 3:59
  Yes. Yeah, she is. And she, I think she
• 4:03
  knows, I think I've talked about this on the podcast before, but I think she
• 4:06
  knows that these treatments are helping, or at least I'm trying to help
• 4:10
  her and she doesn't resist them. She's really good. She sort of sits there
• 4:15
  and takes it all in. With the hydro, she would just,
• 4:18
  you know, she let the water come in. She didn't panic. She sort of,
• 4:21
  I think it was quite cooling for her because the sort of, as the water
• 4:24
  came in, she was panting a bit and I think that sort of cooled her
• 4:25
  down. Actually, so it was probably quite a nice feeling.
• 4:29
  And it didn't get too deep, so she didn't suddenly get really scared and think,
• 4:33
  why is this water kind of coming in and surrounding
• 4:37
  me? I was going to ask you how she got on, because I think before
• 4:40
  in another episode, well, you've told us that she,
• 4:44
  you were struggling to get her into water, I think at one point, or you
• 4:47
  weren't sure whether she liked water. Was that right?
• 4:50
  Yeah, so she's never been, or she's never tried
• 4:55
  to swim, like when we've been on the beach or by kind of a stream,
• 4:59
  she could go in. She sort of has a little dip,
• 5:02
  like a little paddle, and she's okay if the sort of water,
• 5:06
  you know, comes just above her paws to sort of like where her knees are.
• 5:10
  But she's never been one for kind of wanting to jump in water
• 5:14
  and have a swim. Right. So it's like okay
• 5:17
  if it's just quite shallow, and that's a bit like with the Hydro.
• 5:21
  They You know, they, it doesn't go too deep. Hmm.
• 5:24
  So she's okay if she sort of stands there and the water comes in gradually
• 5:28
  and sort of gets to kind of like her
• 5:32
  knees, top of her legs. So yeah. Do dogs
• 5:36
  have knees? There is a technical term for a knee. I cannot
• 5:41
  remember what it is. They should have knees. I dunno why they can't be knees.
• 5:44
  But you know, the midpoint of a leg. No, it's interesting
• 5:49
  'cause like obviously I have limited knowledge of dogs and like living with dogs.
• 5:52
  I've said before my grandparents had them, but that's about it. And I always assumed
• 5:56
  dog, all dogs love water, but obviously some more than others. And some
• 6:00
  pugs do, you know, I see video on socials of pugs having a swim.
• 6:04
  Oh, okay. But yeah, but it's just something Betty's never
• 6:08
  really been drawn to or not felt very confident doing,
• 6:12
  I don't think. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Okay. She's more
• 6:16
  like a land girl than a water girl. I suppose if
• 6:20
  she's not like ever come across water, why would she know that it's a great
• 6:23
  thing? Or, you know, if you're living in a city or if you're living in
• 6:27
  a place that hasn't really got a lot of rivers and lakes for them to
• 6:30
  go into, then they're not gonna know, would they?
• 6:33
  No. But the nice thing at the end of it is they wash her all
• 6:36
  down 'cause there's chlorine in the water, I suppose, to keep things really clean.
• 6:40
  So, she gets like a mini groom afterwards. Oh no. She gets
• 6:44
  sort of a, like a shampoo and dry, which is quite cool.
• 6:47
  Cute. So, but yeah, I mean, on the sort of
• 6:50
  topic of grooming, I suppose that leads us into thinking today about our
• 6:55
  special guest, Ryan, from Whisker& Coat.
• 7:00
  Yeah. I mean, I came across Ryan because
• 7:03
  my sort of past history was that I had Diaz and she was a
• 7:07
  Persian and her coat was a nightmare. And I, at the time,
• 7:11
  couldn't find, there was no such thing. Well, I never, I could never find a
• 7:14
  cat groomer. It seemed to be all around dog
• 7:17
  grooming, and I didn't wanna go to a dog groomer to groom Diaz.
• 7:21
  So when, when Whisker& Coat sort of popped up and Ryan
• 7:25
  popped up on some of my radar, I was like,
• 7:29
  oh, so like there actually is specialists now that do this. And the fact that
• 7:32
  he completely specialises in cats was quite an
• 7:36
  encouragement for me. So yeah, opened my eyes a bit. Yeah. I mean, um,
• 7:40
  I've had cats in the past, they've sort of been,
• 7:43
  you know, your average street moggy who's done very
• 7:47
  well at grooming him or herself. So never really
• 7:51
  had to, or never had a cat that's had fur
• 7:55
  that has easily matted. And so, yeah,
• 7:58
  I can see how it's so important to kind of brush a
• 8:01
  cat with, with longer hair so you don't get in a situation
• 8:06
  where you've got all these kind of big clumps. And you end up having to
• 8:09
  take them to the vets, 'cause that's not a very positive experience, is it,
• 8:12
  for them? So. No, I know. What I think learning here
• 8:16
  for me, looking back, is I got Diaz, who was a Persian,
• 8:20
  didn't know how difficult her coat would be to look after.
• 8:24
  Hmm. Because she was my first long-haired cat,
• 8:27
  and it was a surprise how easily matted it got. And I wasn't in,
• 8:31
  'cause I had moggies before, just, you know, Didn't need to brush,
• 8:35
  didn't think about brushing. So, you know, I bought
• 8:39
  her from a breeder and actually I think there was a little bit of care
• 8:42
  and a bit of insight given to me at the time. And I did buy
• 8:45
  a book, but I wasn't prepared for how matted she gets.
• 8:49
  And I did say to myself,
• 8:53
  their fur is too hard for me personally to keep on top of.
• 8:57
  I was, I was in my 20s and I could have done better, but So,
• 9:01
  which is why we were choosing Ragdolls this time over Persians,
• 9:04
  and the Ragdoll fur is very different. Right. But I always think,
• 9:08
  you know, if you're gonna get any kind of pedigree cat, it is
• 9:13
  worth doing that bit of research just to understand their coat,
• 9:17
  their, their basic needs of food and other just sort
• 9:21
  of like differences between the breeds and what makes them different. Just so you're a
• 9:24
  bit prepared, I suppose. Understand what, what best
• 9:27
  for you and your family before going out and getting one that looks pretty.
• 9:31
  Yeah, yeah. I'm really looking forward to hearing about, you know,
• 9:34
  what Ryan does and what's involved, because it's definitely an area
• 9:38
  I'm not very clear about or understand.
• 9:41
  And like you say, you've got that lived experience, and if you had your
• 9:45
  time again, you might do things differently. So yeah, it'd be good to
• 9:49
  get his advice and insight into taking
• 9:52
  care of a cat's coat and also his role as a cat groomer, 'cause it
• 9:56
  just sounds fascinating. And what made him go into it.
• 9:59
  Yeah. Yeah. And, uh, yeah, like I'm
• 10:03
  conscious that cats are probably not as confident in those kind
• 10:07
  of situations, or maybe they are, maybe there's lots that love being groomed, but I'm
• 10:12
  sure there are lots that aren't. Um, so yeah, just understanding like how
• 10:15
  he kind of takes care of cats when they're in the groom room.
• 10:19
  And what he's doing to make them feel comfortable.
• 10:22
  Yeah, I hope, I'm hoping to pick up a few tips, to be honest.
• 10:25
  And particularly around like the heat, when we've been through that heatwave recently,
• 10:28
  I'm mindful, 'cause my cats are long-haired, what I can do. So anything we can
• 10:32
  share with you all about keeping cats cooler in those very hot weathers
• 10:36
  that's more likely to come every year would be a good thing. So let's,
• 10:39
  shall we invite him in? Get that going? Indeed, let's do it.
• 10:42
  Cool.
• 10:52
  Hello and welcome to another episode of Paws Between Us.
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  And we're here with an amazing new guest from Whisker&
• 10:59
  Coat. Whisker& Coat is a cat-first grooming, behaviour, and nutrition
• 11:03
  team. And today we're talking to Ryan, who's here to tell us more about cat
• 11:06
  grooming, but he's passionate about cat welfare more broadly.
• 11:10
  So I'm sure we'll be touching on lots of other subjects. Welcome,
• 11:13
  Ryan. Thanks for coming on. Thank you so much for having me, Natalie. Nice to
• 11:17
  meet you both. Hi, Sasha, how you doing? Hello. Yes, I'm good.
• 11:21
  Yeah. So great to have you on. We've, we connected over socials
• 11:25
  and yeah, we've been supporting each other all through the last few months
• 11:29
  and it's been great to sort of find someone like yourself who's got quite a
• 11:33
  wide variety of skills and interests. So tell us a little
• 11:37
  bit about your background, Ryan, like what led you up to sort of setting up
• 11:40
  the business and like particularly about like the animals in your life that maybe
• 11:44
  have encouraged you to follow this path. Absolutely. So up
• 11:49
  until becoming a cat groomer and a cat care provider
• 11:53
  through Whisker& Co, I actually spent around 12
• 11:57
  years in the health and wellbeing sector.
• 12:01
  My experience has been across mainly private
• 12:04
  medical, working in private hospitals as a business
• 12:08
  development lead, as well as working for health tech companies
• 12:13
  prioritising physical and mental health within humans.
• 12:17
  Um, what led me to the pet care industry sadly
• 12:22
  was a bereavement. So I sadly
• 12:26
  lost my dad coming up 2 years in September actually,
• 12:30
  as it happens. And I, uh,
• 12:33
  got made redundant from a very high-paying role and I needed to
• 12:36
  pivot because I just felt like it was
• 12:40
  time to try and explore something new. And just leaning into that, my dad,
• 12:45
  I cared for him for about 4 months towards the end of his life,
• 12:48
  and the inspo for being within the pet care industry
• 12:52
  comes from him. He used to rescue and
• 12:56
  rehouse cats and dogs when I was younger as
• 12:59
  a bit of a hobby, and I have taken that on as
• 13:03
  a bit of an honourable mention moment
• 13:07
  for him and living out what he would've absolutely loved to do.
• 13:11
  That's a lovely honourable thing to do for
• 13:14
  your dad, like a memorial for him and living on his Yeah, carrying on
• 13:18
  his legacy, as it were. Absolutely. And it
• 13:22
  does kind of go into my love and interest of animals as well,
• 13:25
  because growing up, my dad was pretty much, um, a person
• 13:29
  who was fearful of his own shadow, but he absolutely loved animals and nature.
• 13:34
  So I kind of took that and ran with it
• 13:37
  throughout my teen years and visited many sanctuaries abroad,
• 13:41
  volunteered while backpacking in the kind
• 13:45
  of animal kingdom, if you like. So a lot of the time people say to
• 13:48
  me, are you not scared of like being attacked by a cat? But when I
• 13:51
  look at kind of my, my 20s, I was snake charming
• 13:55
  in India, I was bathing with elephants and feeding
• 13:59
  crocodiles in Africa and walking with lions in Gambia. And that's—
• 14:03
  wow. So I feel like I, I might be a little bit naive
• 14:07
  with my fear of animals. Um, yeah, definitely a cat
• 14:11
  has no match to a crocodile in my opinion. No, you're absolutely right.
• 14:15
  And what a lovely story because, um, I think it's
• 14:19
  sort of, it's echoing, I suppose, where me and Sasha are in like the fact
• 14:22
  you had to sort of pivot your life. I mean, obviously for quite difficult and
• 14:26
  devastating reasons, but, um, yeah, we're both kind of going through that phase of
• 14:30
  like, let's follow a bit more of our passions, let's follow our dreams a bit
• 14:34
  more now and Yeah, it's nice to see that you've been able to turn that
• 14:37
  into something. So yeah, tell us a bit about like Whisker& Co. Like what
• 14:41
  do you do and like what's the business all about? Yeah, so I
• 14:45
  set up Whisker& Co when I quickly realised that cats
• 14:50
  are being completely underserved in
• 14:54
  society as a whole, not just in the UK, but I think
• 14:57
  in general. So I was working within a
• 15:02
  grooming salon and I just noticed that there were a
• 15:06
  lot of inquiries for a more tailored approach, for someone
• 15:10
  who can handle sensitive or aggressive or complex
• 15:14
  cats and their care when it comes to grooming.
• 15:18
  Throughout the last 15 months, I noticed
• 15:22
  that it didn't just stop at grooming. There was many questions around behaviour
• 15:26
  and nutrition, and I'd often get a cat owner who was
• 15:29
  kind of at their wit's end, and they'd be like, I've been looking for a
• 15:32
  cat groomer for ages, but my cat is too aggressive and no one's been able
• 15:37
  to handle him. Or I've been getting referrals from the likes
• 15:41
  of Cats Protection where they've gone against their in-house
• 15:44
  vet team to try a different approach with someone who can
• 15:48
  handle aggressive cats. And 9 times out of 10, I've been humbled once,
• 15:52
  I'm not gonna lie, but 9 times out of 10, the cat just
• 15:56
  needs a different approach and someone that can read their communication.
• 16:00
  And somehow that has ended up being me.
• 16:04
  And I don't know how. Amazing. Do you know what, actually, about, I think,
• 16:08
  I think when I had Diaz, she was my sort of Persian. I think
• 16:11
  I had her when I was my mid-20s. Um,
• 16:15
  and at that time I was searching around for a groomer because Persian
• 16:19
  fur mats really, really well, if you wanna put it that way.
• 16:23
  It mats really quickly and can be spread
• 16:28
  across the whole body within weeks. Yeah. And she,
• 16:31
  we'd often have to have her shaved because I couldn't keep on top of it,
• 16:34
  poor thing. And interestingly, yeah, I was looking for cat groomers.
• 16:38
  They didn't exist then. I had to go to the vet and occasionally get the
• 16:42
  knots sort of pulled out or obviously have the full shave. So it's
• 16:45
  brilliant. You, you were absolutely right in what you said in that like they were
• 16:48
  completely underserved. And I'm glad that people like you are, are kind of now
• 16:52
  around to sort of help some of us support our cat's needs.
• 16:55
  Yeah. So I think cat grooming as a profession
• 16:58
  has, really come to, to the forefront over the last
• 17:03
  probably about 5 years. But having said that,
• 17:07
  I do know that there are some cat groomers servicing the London
• 17:10
  area that have been doing it for about 30 years. Wow. So I
• 17:14
  know it has been a thing for a few decades, but I think
• 17:19
  with the rise of social media and people taking
• 17:23
  on cats more so Now, since the pandemic,
• 17:27
  I think the need has increased and the awareness of it as a service
• 17:31
  has pushed more and more people to actually go into it as a career.
• 17:36
  So just on that then, where you said the need's increased, like what kind
• 17:40
  of things do cats need when it comes to grooming and coat care? Because I
• 17:43
  know nothing about cat grooming. Did some dog grooming, did a short
• 17:47
  course on that. But yeah, just really intrigued to know like what's involved
• 17:51
  and what sort of do you see when people bring their cats to you?
• 17:55
  Like, what are some of the challenges that you're trying to help them with?
• 17:57
  Yeah, so it really does vary and depend.
• 18:01
  So I offer something called a Kitten
• 18:05
  Academy, and essentially you're looking to try and desensitise
• 18:09
  the cat from a very young age so that they become
• 18:14
  used to being handled and groomed by a professional.
• 18:18
  But one thing that I really do see all the time when I go
• 18:22
  to people's homes and they bring out their tools, because I always want to see
• 18:25
  what they're working with at home, is that they all,
• 18:29
  pretty much everyone has the same set of tools that are top
• 18:33
  pick by the likes of an Amazon or a Temu or Topshop.
• 18:37
  And I think people are just a little bit at their wit's end because they
• 18:40
  don't really know what the best tool is or what the best approach is,
• 18:44
  or they can't get access to a cat groomer. So what I see often
• 18:48
  is an owner they will explain to me and they'll be saying,
• 18:51
  oh my God, I've been looking for you for at least a year.
• 18:55
  And my response is, well, here I am, and let me get your cat
• 18:58
  feeling more comfortable. And I think it's because there's
• 19:03
  a lot of desperation when it comes to grooming and there's a lack of education
• 19:06
  and there's a gap in knowledge. So for example,
• 19:10
  long-haired cats, they need regular grooming between every
• 19:13
  6 to 10 weeks. Dependent on their breed and their coat type.
• 19:18
  So Natalie, Persian, would probably need a professional groom
• 19:22
  at least every 8 weeks to, to hold off those,
• 19:25
  those mats. But if you were to have
• 19:30
  the right tools and resources available for you to be able to do
• 19:34
  that at home, you wouldn't need a professional like me coming in to save the
• 19:37
  day because you're using the method, the technique,
• 19:41
  and, and the tools. And it is a step-by-step process,
• 19:44
  and I try to educate people around that,
• 19:47
  um, in, in the sessions where they're present as well.
• 19:51
  So yeah, education is key.
• 19:54
  Yeah, great. So do you find then that you can set some people up for
• 19:58
  success? So you talk them through about what's needed and what they need to do,
• 20:00
  and then they, you know, they don't need to come back to you? Yeah,
• 20:03
  absolutely. And it's really— yeah, it's not great for business,
• 20:06
  to be honest. I've given away all the trade secrets.
• 20:10
  Sometimes I get the owner to, to take on some of the groom, and they
• 20:13
  look at me like, but you're supposed to do it. And I'm like, but I
• 20:15
  don't want that. You want to groom
• 20:19
  your cat, like you love your cat to pieces, you want to be able to
• 20:22
  do it yourself. So yeah, I do take a bit of a tutoring approach
• 20:26
  when the owners want to have some involvement, and I think they really do appreciate
• 20:31
  it, especially with like your shorthaired cats, like the
• 20:35
  British Shorthair, which is a very common cat in the UK. I would prefer to
• 20:39
  kind of go in there and give them all the tips and tricks.
• 20:43
  Give them all the links to all the tools that I use. And,
• 20:46
  you know, more often than not, people are a little bit time poor, so they
• 20:49
  come back to me anyway. But there are some cases where I would
• 20:53
  rather train them to groom their own cat so they don't have to spend money
• 20:57
  on me. Brilliant. Brilliant. And over the summer,
• 21:01
  it's, you know, we've been really hot. That's all we've been talking about, I think,
• 21:04
  in the UK is how warm the summers are and how especially
• 21:08
  some of the, you know, the dogs that we have struggle with the heat.
• 21:11
  But what about cats? I mean, how do they regulate their temperatures?
• 21:15
  Does the coat actually help to keep them cool or is it a hindrance?
• 21:18
  Like one of the things I learned with dogs is that some dogs, you know,
• 21:22
  their coats actually keep them cool. So it's opposite to what you might
• 21:25
  think. So I don't know, do cats need
• 21:29
  like any support during the summer months? Yeah. So you are absolutely right, Sasha.
• 21:33
  So when it comes to the cat's coat,
• 21:37
  it is both an insulator as well as
• 21:41
  a heat restrictor. So I, I often get
• 21:44
  asked, can I give a lion's trim on a cat?
• 21:48
  And I absolutely do offer it, but I only offer it in certain circumstances.
• 21:53
  It's not a default for me. So I think
• 21:57
  that this full body shaving of a cat's fur comes from
• 22:01
  a place where there's no cat groomers available. So a
• 22:05
  lot of owners will do the one and done approach where they shave the cat
• 22:09
  and the cat's fur will then grow back over the course of, you know,
• 22:13
  3 to 5 months dependent on their breed. And age,
• 22:17
  etc. Whereas with professional grooming,
• 22:20
  the approach is actually to do a de-shed at least every
• 22:25
  3 months so that those mats aren't
• 22:28
  there, the cat isn't in any pain, and they are just
• 22:32
  able to then regulate their temperature on their own with the coat length still
• 22:36
  intact. So there's a misconception where
• 22:41
  People think shaving the cat will keep them cool, but they actually need that coat
• 22:45
  length to manage and regulate their own temperature.
• 22:50
  And taking that off can actually strip them of the ability to do that.
• 22:53
  That's interesting, 'cause yeah, I think knowing that
• 22:57
  it's the sort of more of the de-shedding and getting rid of that undercoat,
• 22:59
  that's perhaps the more beneficial thing. Like, I know there's different
• 23:03
  kinds of combs, so is there like a de-shedding tool that's different
• 23:06
  from a normal brush that's you would sort of recommend people try and
• 23:11
  look into? Absolutely, and I think this goes mainly
• 23:14
  for the long-haired breeds, but I do de-shedding
• 23:18
  services for short-haired cats, domestic shorthair, and all
• 23:22
  the kind of specialist breeds that are short-haired but
• 23:26
  dense coated. But essentially there's de-shedding tools
• 23:29
  and brushes, and I think everyone believes that using
• 23:33
  a brush on a cat is sufficient enough, but there's actually a 3-step process
• 23:39
  which includes a shedding tool. And there's a few out there that are kind
• 23:43
  of very popular on the market, but I would just advise for anyone to
• 23:48
  kind of dig deeper than the first couple of pages because I'm very
• 23:52
  new to my cat grooming career. I've been doing it for 15 months and my
• 23:56
  tools have upgraded over time,
• 23:59
  and I've finally landed on the kind of holy grail
• 24:03
  of tools that I've used throughout my groom. But I always
• 24:07
  recommend it to whoever I am I,
• 24:11
  I deal with. I might have to get some tips because, um, my Murray
• 24:15
  and Weaver are long-haired ragdolls.
• 24:18
  Yeah, thank you. Although,
• 24:21
  like, I, I don't actually brush them— well, I know I do brush them,
• 24:24
  but I don't need to. They don't get knotted like my other
• 24:28
  cats. But with you now talking about the de-shedding, I am thinking a little
• 24:32
  bit more about looking at that. So I'll have to come to you maybe with
• 24:35
  some recommendations. Yeah, absolutely. Better brush. Yeah, and there's a lot of
• 24:39
  brushes that will comb the top coat and
• 24:43
  your cat will look like they have no mats
• 24:47
  or anything, but the undercoat, if that isn't removed,
• 24:51
  over time it will start to compact and it will start to mat underneath.
• 24:55
  So from an eagle-eye view,
• 24:59
  if you like, from a top view, it looks like your cat hasn't got any
• 25:03
  mats, but underneath, it's actually almost see it like roots.
• 25:06
  Yeah, I think at the base. And your cat, your cat will
• 25:10
  also hide that discomfort very well.
• 25:14
  Yeah, I would recommend a de-shedding tool,
• 25:17
  especially for long-haired cats, even with regular grooming
• 25:20
  at home. So I know a lot of pet owners will brush their cats on
• 25:23
  a regular basis, but if you don't get that undercoat de-shedded and
• 25:28
  mats underneath without realising. And you touched
• 25:32
  on a few breeds while we've been chatting to you. Do you have a favourite
• 25:35
  breed that you like to work with when you're grooming, or do you just
• 25:39
  love them all? Great question. I do love them all, but I don't know whether
• 25:43
  you've seen those TikToks or Instagram posts
• 25:47
  where it's like those satisfying posts of like,
• 25:50
  like sand sculptures, or— Yeah. You know,
• 25:54
  you know, you know those satisfying posts where they crush a can?
• 25:58
  Yeah, so there's a specific breed
• 26:01
  of cat where I groom them and their fur just
• 26:06
  falls in a beautiful pattern every single time, and it feels like one
• 26:09
  of those videos each time where you're like moulding, you know, you know,
• 26:13
  you know the ones that I'm referring to. Yeah, they get like satisfaction from it,
• 26:16
  like, oh yeah. So it's a British Shorthair, I have to
• 26:20
  admit, because the way they're— right, I think every single owner
• 26:24
  when I'm grooming their cat looks at me in complete shock that that much fur
• 26:28
  comes their pet, but it also comes off in
• 26:32
  like this wavy ribbon, ribbon, and,
• 26:36
  and then it's this huge pile next to the cat, and the cat's even looking
• 26:39
  at it like in shock. So yeah, I think British Shorthair is the most satisfying
• 26:43
  groom for me because the amount of fur that comes off, and a
• 26:47
  lot of owners don't realise that their cat's holding on to that much fur.
• 26:50
  But then I really do love a Persian
• 26:54
  as well. They are the most fluffiest, and sometimes
• 26:58
  they have complex matting needs as well, but they always just look up
• 27:02
  at you with these big bold eyes of like, I'm the cutest
• 27:06
  cat ever, please, what are you doing, love me. But they tolerate it very
• 27:10
  well. They're the least aggressive breed as well. I was gonna say, have you,
• 27:13
  have you had some tricky customers? You must have done. I have, I have.
• 27:18
  And I, I don't, I don't like to call them difficult or tricky or aggressive,
• 27:22
  but I have to for the kind of sake of what we're dealing with and
• 27:25
  What is going on within the realm of pet grooming, I guess.
• 27:29
  Yeah. So I have come across some really complex cases where
• 27:33
  there's full body matting and it does take
• 27:38
  up to 3 sessions spaced out where the coat
• 27:42
  is completely impacted and the skin is really raw and some
• 27:46
  bruising and blood and stuff like that. Those cases really do
• 27:50
  pull at my heartstrings. Because I just know the cat absolutely
• 27:54
  knows you're helping them, and they could, they could react in
• 27:58
  such a different way. But when you kind of calm the situation,
• 28:02
  you start working on them, they really do lean into
• 28:06
  your help. And at the end of it, I would think
• 28:09
  that they would run away from me, but they jump off the table, they look
• 28:13
  back, and they almost give you a little wink, and they run off. I have
• 28:17
  had it where a cat will literally hate me, bite me, and then leaving,
• 28:21
  driving away, come to the front of my car and they give me a little
• 28:25
  head pat. Oh, so I, I know I'm doing an all right job when they
• 28:37
  So Ryan, we know like you're passionate about cat welfare.
• 28:41
  I've seen you talk about it on, on your socials and
• 28:44
  you emailed about some of that as well. But I know that the Whisker& Coat,
• 28:49
  your sort of expanding into other things. What are some of
• 28:52
  the other sort of services that you're offering now or in the sort of near
• 28:56
  future? Yes, so, um, outside of
• 29:00
  cat grooming, we are currently offering behavioural training
• 29:04
  programmes. So essentially it's a 12-week programme which is
• 29:09
  delivered by our resident cat behaviourist, Sabah,
• 29:13
  who is internationally recognised for her work
• 29:17
  with rescue centres as well as indoor cats.
• 29:22
  And that is a program to help with
• 29:26
  things like multi-cat households where there's turf
• 29:30
  wars or some difficult behaviour between the
• 29:34
  cats of your life. So for example, if Murray and Weaver were all
• 29:38
  of a sudden to start hating each other and attacking each other to Never.
• 29:42
  Out of nowhere. Never, never. Very chill.
• 29:46
  They definitely see it coming. But there could be like an environmental
• 29:50
  change or a medical change or something like that, and,
• 29:53
  and that's where the behavioural course will come in. So there's a lot of people
• 29:56
  that I, I kind of go to their homes and they start talking about
• 30:01
  their, their cats, and they, they have loads of questions around behavioural support,
• 30:05
  or there's a change that's happened over time and We've
• 30:09
  introduced that behavioural programme to help in those scenarios. Yeah,
• 30:13
  brilliant. Brilliant. And yeah, I've been speaking, even when I'm kind of on socials,
• 30:17
  a lot of people ask for questions about some of the
• 30:21
  problems and stress and new kitten is also a
• 30:25
  sort of a lot of questions about how do I introduce new kittens. So it's
• 30:28
  great that there's people like you and services out there. So people check,
• 30:31
  check them out. And I know you do a few other things. There's nutrition as
• 30:34
  well. Is that right? Yeah. So nutrition is still a work
• 30:38
  in progress. It's something that we haven't launched just yet, but essentially
• 30:42
  it'll be consultations with a qualified
• 30:46
  nutritionist who can help with
• 30:50
  things like feline IBS, litter tray issues,
• 30:54
  transitioning a cat onto a raw diet.
• 30:57
  There's, there's this, as you're probably aware, there's this big
• 31:01
  rise in moving away from the off-the-shelf
• 31:05
  commercial pet food where people are taking on
• 31:09
  a more high protein diet for their cats, but there's even levels
• 31:12
  to that. We're looking at implementing that into our
• 31:17
  services. Amazing. Yeah, I mean, I've got,
• 31:20
  like, have my own problems with food and
• 31:24
  trying to get a nice, you know, something nutritious into my cats.
• 31:28
  They're not on a bad food, but I would love to get them on something
• 31:31
  that was less processed. Yeah. But having
• 31:35
  Ragdolls, and they seem, right, I don't know if it's common with the breed,
• 31:37
  but they seem to have very sensitive stomachs. I'm just finding it very difficult.
• 31:41
  And it's interesting as well because there's so much choice. I dunno
• 31:45
  how you feel about this, but me and my husband get so lost because we're
• 31:48
  like, do we need one with hairballs? Do we need one that's dietary or one
• 31:51
  that's like low fat for indoor cats? One that's neutered,
• 31:55
  one that's young, one that's this age, one that's that age. And I'm like,
• 31:57
  I just want cat food. Yeah, there's so much choice,
• 32:01
  I think it makes it really difficult. But yeah, I don't know what
• 32:04
  you've heard or how you feel. Yeah, so there's definitely
• 32:08
  decision fatigue within the food industry.
• 32:11
  If you have a look at the, the pet food aisle, there's just
• 32:15
  so many options available. Um, what I would say just as a
• 32:19
  general rule of thumb is you're looking for something that's high in protein,
• 32:23
  low in sugar, but obviously that's generalisation.
• 32:26
  There are definitely specifics when it comes down to medical
• 32:30
  conditions like thyroid, renal needs, as well as diabetic
• 32:35
  cats. So I would always consult a vet and
• 32:39
  do your own research. But the way I, the way I see it is you
• 32:44
  just gotta have a look at the high-processed kind
• 32:48
  of commercial foods as a bit like processed foods for humans. We all
• 32:52
  should be on a higher protein, higher fibre diet. You've kind of got
• 32:55
  a do your research into the nutrition of what your cat specifically
• 33:00
  needs. And there's loads of lovely, great, innovative companies out
• 33:04
  there that are trying to change that, like your Untamed or
• 33:08
  your Catkin and so on. Yeah. I mean, that's a great little bit
• 33:12
  of advice for anyone listening. And like you say, there are loads of great companies
• 33:16
  out there now trying to break the mould and offer more healthy,
• 33:20
  nutritious foods. That's moving in the right direction. That's just fantastic,
• 33:23
  isn't it? You said at the start, cats are left behind, and now we're hopefully
• 33:27
  catching up. Yeah, I think cats are definitely having their
• 33:31
  moment, and I think it's about time because for the first time in,
• 33:36
  uh, well, in history of, of, of pet
• 33:40
  ownership, cats are up there with dogs in terms
• 33:43
  of the number of pet, uh, pets per household. So they're closely
• 33:47
  behind dogs, and I think they're actually due to surpass them.
• 33:51
  I am pleased that the sector is offering
• 33:54
  more for them in that. I mean, we're going to the Cat
• 33:58
  Show Live in a couple of weeks, and so I can't wait to see some
• 34:01
  of the stalls there and some of the new products that are on offer.
• 34:03
  So that's going to be a real bit of excitement for me. I can't wait
• 34:07
  to see some of the stuff that's now open for cats and available.
• 34:13
  So yeah.
• 34:18
  Ryan, one of the things we talked about welfare more generally. And another
• 34:22
  thing you were really passionate about speaking about was, um, the renters'
• 34:25
  rights and how that's all changing. And do you want to tell us
• 34:29
  a little bit more about that? Because we haven't covered it yet in our podcast,
• 34:31
  so it'd be great for you to talk about that for us.
• 34:35
  Yeah, so with the Renters' Rights Bill that's due
• 34:39
  or has been passed, um, it essentially gives
• 34:43
  power back to renters within the UK to challenge their landlords
• 34:47
  decision on whether they can keep a pet. And the reason why I'm quite
• 34:51
  passionate about it is because I think there's this stigma around particularly
• 34:54
  cat ownership within the renters market where
• 34:58
  cats are deemed to be, um, destructive. Yeah. Yeah.
• 35:02
  So things like scratching, the smell of urine, or,
• 35:06
  or a cat litter tray within the home. But there are loads of different
• 35:10
  things that a cat owner who rents can do,
• 35:14
  um, to offset those things. So things like the
• 35:18
  high protein diet, stepping away from commercial foods,
• 35:22
  that tends to take away some of the smell from urine and the faeces.
• 35:26
  But also switching from like plastic litter trays
• 35:30
  to metal aluminium trays where
• 35:34
  the plastic doesn't absorb the smell of urine and so on and so
• 35:38
  forth. So, and then obviously regular at-home grooming to remove
• 35:43
  all that dead coat and the dander from a cat's fur, which creates
• 35:47
  that smell. That's really good tips actually. I hadn't
• 35:51
  thought about kind of trying to, like you say, offset the problems there a little
• 35:55
  bit. 'Cause yeah, I know, um, when I was renting when I was
• 35:58
  younger after sort of coming out of uni and I had Diaz
• 36:02
  at the time, I had to obviously not disclose
• 36:05
  that I had a cat 'cause I needed to get a place to rent.
• 36:07
  But I was like, no, no, I haven't got a cat. No, no, no,
• 36:09
  no. And then when they come round and do the inspection, I'd be like putting
• 36:12
  the cat in the cat carrier and putting her in the car. And hiding her
• 36:15
  and hiding all of her stuff. And it's like, but my cat
• 36:19
  comes with me, she's part of my life. And to, you know, to what are
• 36:23
  renters meant to do? The only thing that's gonna happen is either those animals end
• 36:26
  up in shelters, you know, or it's not right to separate
• 36:31
  an owner and their pet, that bond is so strong, they're family. And yeah,
• 36:35
  what's the worst thing that can happen really? Like, you know.
• 36:39
  I think generally speaking, I think that the power
• 36:43
  is gonna be put back into the renter's hands. The younger generation are really being
• 36:46
  able to afford to buy their own houses. So that's part
• 36:51
  of the reason why the government are trying to pass these new bills to give
• 36:55
  control back to the, the renter and to the younger generation.
• 36:59
  But, you know, there is still— it is still down to the discretion of
• 37:03
  the landlord. I suppose the reason why I want to shout about
• 37:06
  it is, and educate cat owners, is that they can actually offset
• 37:11
  some of these challenges and prove to their landlord that
• 37:14
  actually there's other ways of of going about things.
• 37:18
  Thanks, Ryan. Yeah, I agree, and no one should have
• 37:21
  to give up their cat just because, you know,
• 37:24
  they, they can't take them with them into a new property. So it's
• 37:28
  crazy. I think it's such an old-fashioned view
• 37:31
  as well, like, of just sort of cats and dogs. But those little
• 37:35
  tips actually are really helpful to, like, reassure a worried landlord
• 37:39
  if you, you know, because like you say, Ryan, it's still at the discretion of
• 37:43
  them, but Actually, you educating people, Ryan, is brilliant
• 37:46
  that you, you know, that the pet owner can then say to the landlord,
• 37:49
  look, this is how I can make it better for the property and
• 37:52
  make sure nothing happens, la la la la. So that's, that's really helpful. Yeah,
• 37:56
  absolutely. I think also something that is going
• 38:00
  to be a change, and it's something I read in a book many years ago,
• 38:03
  and it's the humanisation of pets. So by 2050,
• 38:08
  there's going to be a whole new kind of of range of laws,
• 38:12
  services, health tech, and kind of community
• 38:17
  around pet ownership. Because simply by 2050,
• 38:21
  people aren't going to be having as many children and they're going to be humanising
• 38:24
  their pets. So there's going to be lots of change happening over the next
• 38:28
  couple of decades. Hear, hear. I think that's a
• 38:31
  great thing. We can put our paws up to that. And, you know,
• 38:34
  pets are a key member of the family, and I am glad that the rest
• 38:38
  of the world is catching up with that. Yeah, 2050 isn't actually that far
• 38:42
  away when you think about it. No, I still think I'd like to see all
• 38:45
  those changes, to be fair. Same. Maybe,
• 38:49
  you know, what, 24 years? Yeah, a lot can change in
• 38:53
  that time. I'll be an old woman by then. I read this book about 13
• 38:56
  years ago, and since then a lot of it has, um,
• 39:00
  kind of come to fruition. Yeah, might check out that book. I'll send you the
• 39:04
  link. Let's put it, we'll put it in the link actually for the episode.
• 39:07
  Yeah, thanks, Brian. That'd be great. So just to sort of wrap
• 39:10
  up then, you know, you talked about cats are having
• 39:14
  their moment at the moment, which is, you know, it's time and
• 39:18
  it's brilliant. But is there, you know, is there one thing that we could
• 39:22
  all do to make the world a better place for cats?
• 39:26
  Are there kind of any improvements or developments that you would like
• 39:30
  to see? So I would say it all kind of boils
• 39:33
  down to understanding cat behaviour.
• 39:36
  So a big part of my, my grooming practice is actually monitoring
• 39:41
  and understanding a cat's behaviour and communication. And I think that
• 39:45
  is the big sticking point for a lot of people, is that
• 39:49
  they don't understand cats in general. Just trying
• 39:52
  to get your head around what works for them and not seeing them
• 39:56
  from the lens of a dog, if that makes sense. So something
• 40:00
  that I actually talk about all the time is I was never a cat person.
• 40:03
  I was so fearful of cats. Um, I thought
• 40:08
  cats hated me because I was loud, I was tall, I was
• 40:12
  brash, but it was because I treated them like a dog. I would
• 40:15
  approach them trying to like cuddle them
• 40:19
  like a dog or high-pitched voice like you would interact
• 40:24
  with a dog to get them excited. And to be honest, I was approaching them
• 40:27
  all wrong. Cats are very sensitive. Cats are very much like very
• 40:32
  boundaried. They love who they love and that's it. You've got
• 40:35
  to earn their trust. But you have to meet every cat on
• 40:40
  their level and every cat is different. So you have to tailor your
• 40:44
  approach to it. And it all does boil down to the senses: touch,
• 40:47
  smell, and audio. So if there's a
• 40:51
  cat that's a little bit sensitive with noise, lower the tone a little bit.
• 40:55
  Go with a different approach. It's so lovely to
• 40:59
  like hear people get in tune
• 41:03
  with an animal and like, yeah,
• 41:05
  be animal-led, be that animal-led and like learn to understand it, learn to
• 41:09
  kind of work with it and, and respect its behaviour and
• 41:13
  its boundaries. So hearing you talk like that is so nice. And I, I like
• 41:17
  that more and more of us are starting to do this. I mean, we're,
• 41:19
  I feel like we're kind of almost, me and Sasha started to sort of talk
• 41:22
  in an echo chamber of people who feel very much the same, but it,
• 41:25
  it's such a I feel like even the sort of communities out there on
• 41:29
  social media that I talk to around cats, we're all very much in that mindset.
• 41:33
  And I think that's lovely that we are able to spread that out
• 41:37
  even further and educate people about it. Yeah, absolutely.
• 41:40
  Yeah. And it is continuous learning, isn't it? Because new
• 41:45
  things, new pieces of research or knowledge come out all the time. So there's
• 41:49
  always something new, I think, to get your head round. Sure. Yeah. You can never
• 41:53
  stop learning about these things, but yeah, definitely love the idea of being cat-led
• 41:57
  and thinking about the world from a cat's perspective and what they need.
• 42:00
  So I don't think I quite did that when I was younger and I had
• 42:04
  cats, but yeah, I definitely would be thinking
• 42:07
  about that now if I got another cat. One thing I would just like to
• 42:11
  say as well is that, um, a cat's behaviour is led by,
• 42:15
  uh, the environment or, um, that it's
• 42:19
  something that is medically going on. Most cats
• 42:23
  are not meant to be anxious, nervous, or aggressive.
• 42:27
  There's something within their environment that is impacting that,
• 42:31
  and that could be that they haven't socialised with other cats before,
• 42:35
  or they haven't been desensitised as a kitten to grooming,
• 42:38
  for example, or they just haven't got enough at-home
• 42:43
  enrichment with toys and, and so on and so
• 42:46
  forth. So It's almost like a trial and
• 42:50
  error test and kind of see
• 42:54
  what works. But by default, cats shouldn't be nervous,
• 42:58
  angry, or aggressive. Yeah. Well, thanks for that,
• 43:02
  Ryan. That's quite interesting insight for people to think about. If they are
• 43:06
  noticing a change in their cat or their behaviour isn't just right, then yeah,
• 43:10
  there's something going on and either consider what the environment's doing or
• 43:14
  take them to see the vet if it's something health-related, and always get
• 43:18
  that checked out. Yeah. Thank you, Ryan. So before we finish,
• 43:22
  let's, how, how can people get in touch if they want to like access your
• 43:25
  services and kind of, you know, where do you cover? How far is your reach?
• 43:28
  Like where can people get access to you?
• 43:31
  Absolutely. So at Home Grooming, I do cover a
• 43:35
  very large service area. So I cover all
• 43:39
  London boroughs as well as all home counties surrounding the
• 43:44
  kind of greenbelt of London. So that's Oxford,
• 43:48
  Kent, Essex, Suffolk, Surrey,
• 43:51
  Slough, and so on and so forth.
• 43:54
  I am willing to travel the distance for complex
• 43:58
  cases and multiple cat households. So I'm always willing to
• 44:02
  do a consultation to see if I'm a good fit for,
• 44:06
  for any scenario. And then the behavioural
• 44:09
  training programme is accessible anywhere.
• 44:13
  So it's delivered online, remote.
• 44:16
  It's a 12-week program with a check-in every
• 44:19
  week and loads of resources and tools and a community
• 44:23
  to access in between your sessions. And it's
• 44:28
  delivered via Zoom. So anyone in the UK or international
• 44:31
  can access it. Yeah, amazing.
• 44:35
  And we'll put the links to your website and socials in
• 44:38
  the episode. So check those out, everybody, if you want to find direct links
• 44:43
  to those. But anything else, Ryan, before we go? Be more
• 44:47
  cat. We need a t-shirt saying that. I'm sure
• 44:50
  it— yeah, but yeah, actually, sit on
• 44:54
  window ledges and yeah, yeah, a different view. Yeah,
• 44:58
  take a different view, be boundaried, and it's okay to,
• 45:02
  to have that. Wise words. There you go.
• 45:06
  Thank you so much, Ryan. Oh, it's been lovely to have you on. Thank you
• 45:09
  for taking the time out to come and speak to us. Oh, thank you so
• 45:12
  much. Yeah, thank you. You're welcome. Take care.
• 45:15
  Bye-bye. Bye. Thank you.