There I was minding my own business reading Mary Roach’s new book Gulp: Adventures on the Alimentary Canal, when during a chapter about digestive disorders she just casually mentions in a footnote that Hairball Awareness Day is rapidly approaching. In fact it’s every year on the last Friday of April. Who knew? By the way, (and you might want your kids to leave the room for this), did you know that humans can get hairballs, too? It’s called “Rapunsel Syndrome”, I kid you not. The rest is too disgusting for prime time interweb publication. Read Mary’s book.
So we have two cats, one of which, Eddy, gets a hairball about twice a week and although he’s dumb as a bag of hammers, he has refined his “delivery” with an uncanny, Cy Young award-winning, GPS guided accuracy so as to “deposit” his 6-inch mucous bombs exactly where I will inevitably walk. Love him dearly but seriously…I’m pretty “aware” of hairballs already, thank you. As are most cat owners.
But, being a fan of both obscure holidays and “awareness” in general, I just had to make a little poster in honor of this unfortunate (and sometimes serious) consequence of being both fur-bearing and a neurotic groomer, in other words, being a feline and/or George Michael. I know dogs get them, too, and again…some people, and again…eeewww, but cats got the evolutionary shaft on this one. So let’s cough up a little compassion for our feline buddies, even if it is a few days late.