The HairBear that almost wasn’t
April 29th, 2011
Hairballs. We’ve all seen them. We try to ignore them. But not anymore!
Today is Hairball Awareness Day. This annual event was started by the National Museum of Health and Medicine of the Armed Forces Institute of Pathology (NMHM) to showcase hairballs and other ‘ball’s (called bezoars) found in the stomachs of cats, cows, humans and other animals.
Romeo the cat (love him!) is the spokescat for the FURminator Hairball Awareness Day. I interviewed Romeo’s staff, Caroline Golon, to learn more about this campaign and to help spread the world.
Caroline is also the genius behind the Amazing Hairball Creatures idea. I love the FURminator tools, and this year’s “long hair, large cat” model is my favorite so far. The hairball creatures just added to the fun.
Here is ‘my’ entry, also found on PeoplePets:
I say ‘my’ because it was a joint project between my daughter and I and several pets; some of whom had some naughtiness that almost brought this project to a screeching halt. CoughQuincyandPurlCough
Here’s how it happened
Honestly, I didn’t give my creature creation much thought. I figured I would do the requisite brushing for my review of the tool, then smoosh the hair around until it looked like something recognizable, sprinkle a few beads around, and call it good.
Then I mentioned the project to my 11-year old daughter, the real arteest. She is a huge fan of Romeo and was on fire with the idea. I told her to “think of stuff” while she was at school, not expecting too much. I mean… it’s hair. We have tons of pet hair here on a daily basis.
After school, my daughter had a concept, name, and sketches for this project. She was serious. Ok, let’s do it.
Being the arteest that she is, she wanted to have full control of the project, including procurement of the materials. I wasn’t so sure about this, but hey – the pets always need brushing, so OK.
Barnie’s hair was the focus. My daughter excitedly carted him around, getting everything ready. Barnie: not so happy. Then she decided she needed to lay down a towel to do the brushing and hair collecting. More carting around to find a towel. Barnie: getting irritated at this point.
By the time the brushing commenced, Barnie did not want anything to do with this project. I intervened. Got hair. Then I had the idea that the other pets could play, too. Quincy, Sophie, Argos and Purl all loved their massages, and my daughter loved the new expanded hair color palette. Everyone happy. HairBear V1.0 complete.
The next day…
It was Saturday, and instead of getting up at 5:30am as usual, I thought I would sneak a little sleep-in time. After the early morning dog turnout (dogs don’t get the sleeping in thing), I noticed Purl either chewing on something or trying to spit something out. Turns out, it was both. I assist. To my horror, I find HairBear. Unrecognizable now, ruined.
My daughter, as per her usual, didn’t put HairBear away in a safe place the night before. Quincy the night owl kitty found it, and had a great time running around the house and ultimately abandoning HairBear in the laundry room where Purl found it. Uh oh. It was bad enough that it was ruined, but eventually I would need to tell the arteest about it. I grumbled to my husband about kids not putting things away, and tried to go back to sleep.
I figured I would have a few more hours, since it was Saturday after all, and the kids love to sleep in.
Not this Saturday.
Inexplicably, my daughter was up at the crack of dawn and stormed into our room, furious about HairBear. (Why was she up so early? How did she find HairBear so quickly?) She was done with this project. Stoopid pets.
I had to work to convince her to create HairBear V2.0, which included grooming the pets all over again. Barnie: are you guys crazy?
But I did. And she did. And the pets helped. And here we are with HairBear V2.0. Whew!
Check all of them out!
Lots of fun and creativity to be found in these hairball creatures!
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3 Responses to “The HairBear that almost wasn’t”
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Janet Tobiassen Crosby DVM never planned to be a writer. She wanted to be a veterinarian from the moment she learned such a job existed - sometime during the first grade, when she accompanied her mom to the vet with a sick cat. Janet "adopted" all the neighborhood cats, and at age 11 she started training her first dog, a newly adopted rescue Collie. At age 12, she joined a dog obedience 4-H club and was active through high school as a member and as a junior leader.
- DrJTC: Sorry for the delay – just now saw your comment. Good point. I am lucky to live in a relatively bug-free...
- Kathleen Winn: Great tips! We live in the country so our dog is a regular “wilderness adventurer.” Our...
- AboutVetMed: Thanks, Deb! I was relieved we ended up with something to submit.
- Deb: Loved this story. Your “HairBear” turned out really cute.
- Jenni Meyer: Dave, Millions of dogs in this country are killed every day. I applaud what you are doing and had no...
[...] The HairBear that almost wasn’t [...]
Loved this story. Your “HairBear” turned out really cute.
Thanks, Deb! I was relieved we ended up with something to submit.