been there, done that! i used to use it on curmudgeon cat sometimes.

Ivory soap works really well because it is soap, and not detergent, but you have to grate it off a bar and dissolve it in hot water to use it.

What we really need are Phasers that we can set for stun, but no one is interested in those.

i’ve considered trying something like that myself.

several of my cats go into full paralysis mode when i do the momcat picking them up by the scruff thing. i’ve done a couple of them by holding them over the bathtub, spraying them with one of those fancy shampoo-hose-sprayers, like you can do with pesticides and the garden hose for your grass and flowers, and them spraying them with warm water to rinse (and have ended up using a lot of shampoo that way). i’m pretty sure that the ones i can’t do this to would never let me get them into a bucket (or any other contraption) either.

I finally developed a system involving a 5-gallon bucket, a hole in the lid for her head to poke through and an inlet and outlet cut into the bucket, so I could circulate warm water through it while her head was out of the water.

I attempted a blow dryer attachment, but she wasn’t going to tolerate that.

I really appreciated Advantage when it was introduced.

i’ve considered trying to teach my present crew how to swim, as a substitute for having to give them medicated flea baths mostly. i’ve been able to give baths to 3 of them so far, without bloodshed, but it’s a lengthy process that involves moving in baby steps and a lot of waiting for the cat to become unnervous at each little step, just like in that instructables post.

I would need one of those anti-shark diving suits that are basically stainless steel chainmail, before I would attempt to teach a feral anything, much less swimming.