Since most quilters are animal lovers I though maybe you guys could help me-- I just inherited an outdoor longggg hair cat---She is a knotted mess and very nervous. She will barely let me touch her. I need suggestions on getting the knotted hair out so I can keep her brushed--help pls

i took my cat to the vet and when they had him sedated they worked on his hair. hes a wild thing.

Not right away. Taming an outdoor cat takes time, and if she is really feral, then you'll have a long time job on your hands.
I have a long haired rescue cat, and she flat out refuses to let me brush her. She stares at the other one while I'm brushing him, he absolutely loves his blue people brush. So I'm taking it one step at a time, I rub her back with a glove on, that gets a lot of the hair.

As for the matted hair, I'd suggest you get her used to petting, and hold a tiny pair of scissors in one hand while petting her with the other, with maybe a treat to get her attention away from the other hand. Then clip a tiny bit at a time when she's used to you tugging at her hair.

Like I said, this'll take a lot of time, but well worth it when you get a loving cat out of this scared one. It's good of you to even try, sounds like this poor thing has been abused in her tough life.

----------------------------
This might be the only way you could do it this month or year.

My friend had her cat shaved at the groomer. May look funny at first, but allowed the cat to handle grooming and stay unknotted. Good luck.

Take her to a vet or groomer. It isn't cheap but well worth your piece of mind , not to mention pieces of skin and hers. It will be a one time expense and you will both be much happier.

We have one that developed some knotted fur at one time for some reason. We ended up with a trip to the vet and sedation and clipping. She looked funny for a while but you could see that she was totally relieved of all the pulling of the matted fur. She never looked back after that and her fur hasn't knotted again since.

cornstarch...rub some in, brush it out.

I agree! I take my Persian to a groomer every 8 weeks. He isn't shaved but washed and combed. He just lays on his back in the middle of all these dogs and relaxes. I started him out at 6 months tho. He's very tame. It'd be worth a vet trip to have it done!

I managed to capture my feral barn cat (now my dear friend) with food. I placed a cage on the porch near where I fed her for several days. Then I began to move the food dish closer to the cage. Finally I put the dish right at the door a couple of times; ended by placing the dish just inside the cage.. After I'd done that a few times, I moved further to the back of the cage and quickly shut the cage door on her and went straight to the vet for spaying and rabies shot.

I thought for sure she'd never 'speak' to me again after I brought her home, but within a day or so we were back to normal and the cage was back in storage.

Jan in VA