This is an automated archive made by the Lemmit Bot.
The original was posted on /r/tifu by /u/anonny3663 on 2026-01-15 07:12:11+00:00.
I have a long haired cat that hates his belly and front of his body being touched or brushed. My parents got him from a breeder when I was a kid so he is supposed to be a purebred scottish fold which usually they have short fur, but for some reason my cat has long fur like a siberian cat or maine coon or any kind of long haired cat. He would be brushed regularly but his belly was never touched. He had developed matting that went unnoticed and when I discovered it had gotten really bad. Because he has such long fur it’s something you won’t see or notice until you feel it because the fur covers it. I wanted to take him to a groomer initially but I didn’t have the money and my mother initially agreed that she’d pay for it if I took him but then backtracked on that and wanted us to take care of it ourselves so I cut and brushed the mats out myself (I gave him lots of treats so he’d tolerate it at least a little bit). I couldn’t get all of them so I will be taking him to a groomer soon anyway to get rid of the ones on the front of his body.
When I talked about his matting issue with a worker at a pet store he seemed to be normal about it. But more recently I saw a coworker I hadn’t seen in a while and he asked how my cat was (we always talk about cats), I said good, then I said he had a lot of matting so I had to cut it out myself and he went “MATS?!” I said “yeah” and then he ignored me after that.
I know matting is bad and I don’t feel good about the fact that that happened, but I was truly unaware that matting could happen if you don’t trim the fur and/or brush it regularly EVERYWHERE (once again he was getting brushed regularly just not on his belly or the front of his body where the matting developed I guess as a result), and I did not feel good about it at all, but now I just feel like a heartless cruel neglectful abusive monster for letting this happen. And I hate myself so much I feel like I don’t deserve to even exist and that I now deserve bad things because of it and that everyone should hate me and stay away from me. So yeah. Also I later remembered my coworker was like a big animal lover so that makes things a lot worse.
TLDR my cat hates being touched on his belly and the front of his body let alone brushed there so he was brushed everywhere, mats formed as a result that went unnoticed until there was a lot and it was pretty severe. I made the mistake of telling a coworker about the matting and that I took care of it and he freaked out and proceeded to ignore me after.