One reaps what one sows. 自業自得だな...

Due to my usual laziness, I've been neglecting routine tasks such as grooming the cat, trimming his nails, and cutting off hair knots. Today, the inevitable happened, and the infamous brown stuff got stuck on the two good-sized hair bundles by the old guy's rear. Needless to say, it stunk.

At first I tried to wipe the substance off with tissue paper, but I immediately realized the futility of the tactic. So I switched to my trusty blue brush that the cat detests so much and tried to scrape the tangled hair bunches off with the help of the magic hair spray.

Of course, anyone who's tried to brush through matted hair mess know it can be painful. All the more so for the poor feline since he couldn't brace himself for the searing pain. He meowed in protest and hissed a couple times throughout the wrestling match. I felt so sorry for him that I allowed him to escape a few times (before catching him right after). It was during his last round of struggle to break free when he used my left palm as leverage and sprinted with all his might (I was kind of letting go, too).

And left a deep, long gash on my lower left palm with one of his hind claws.

In the beginning, there was just a clear slash lined with slightly raised skin that's flipped up from the cut. Then tiny red beads started to emerge from deep within the abyss after a few seconds. This was when I went to wash my hand and tried to hold my left hand up in a lame attempt to slow the blood flow and make it clot.

Once it appeared that I was able to use my left hand somewhat without the gash bursting open again, I returned to my operation. This time, I resorted to using my trusty purple scissors...

I should have done this in the first place, even though it's more time consuming and difficult to handle. orz

After another power struggle (he even coughed a couple times in an usual way from over-exerting himself) that ended in my dictatorship, his rear was free of the smelly substance as he eagerly sniffed and licked at the catnip I offered him afterwards as compensation. There's still some remnants of the tangled hair bunch left, but these won't interfere with his usual biological sessions and can wait until next time, preferably after my palm heals as I'll need to hold him down tighter than this time in order to completely rid of them.

I liken the gash to a deep cardboard cut, only cleaner. Cleaner cuts are supposed to heal faster, so hopefully I'll be able to use my left hand normally next week. Right now, I'm keeping my left palm flat to help solidify the drying blood dike. Seeing blood on my bed tomorrow morning from curling my palm and breaking the cut open during sleep would not be fun.

ちょっと痛いよ、傷。（つд｀）