QUOTE (rottmom @ Aug 12 2008, 02:11 PM)

May I suggest you just take her to the groomer and let them deal with combing her out? ...
Like I said, I considered it revenge for the whole "Your carpet is my cat box" episode. Hell, I can live with the punctures - just as l win in the end! And I did.
She's not actually a long hair - just your average gray tabby.
Funny thing is, she's got this weird form of being petted the she adores. Put my right hand on her face, from about her nose on up, cover her eyes. And I have to press VERY hard all around her skull and stroke back, over her head and ears and down her neck and back. If I don't press and squeeze hard enough, she'll shove into my hand to make it firmer. It has to almost crush her or she's not satisfied. If I'm not pulling her fur and skin hard enough to slant her eyes, it's just nowhere near good enough for her.
As long as I'm doing that with one hand, she doesn't care if the other hand is poking a fork into her side. I could set her on fire, and she doesn't care as long as she's getting that hard massage on her face, head and neck. She sure doesn't care about matted hair being combed out. I guess I have an S&M cat.
Trouble is, sometimes I needed BOTH hands while dealing with nasty knots, and THAT's when she'd get PO'd at the hand with the comb. Then she'd strike out and his, and hook one of those needle claws into the thumb or the back of my hand.
Finally, we're big on all the kids being responsible for their pets, including grooming. (And my wife was a groomer through college, and has always handled the clippering) So we can't get away with the adults handing their pets off to the pros.