A New Life Lesson

Ok, so I had new experience today, one that I'm kinda thinking I don't really want to have again...
On that note, have you ever tried to bathe your cat? For those who are unaware, Chris and I have two adorable cats (we call them "the babies"). Their names are Micah and Cali. Micah is mostly my cat (he was a bottle-feeder so he thinks that I really am his mother) and Cali is mostly "daddy's girl." Anyway - Micah has had some sort of skin irritation on his back and it has cause little flakes (like dandruff or something) so I thought maybe it would help if he had a bath. You know soothe the irritated skin. Now I'm no fool, I knew cat-bathing is not a well-like sport, but Chris and I did some research about it online and were well prepared to give it a shot. So this afternoon we filled the tub a little bit (maybe 5 or 6 inches) with warm water and had PLENTY of towels ready (might I just say it's a good thing too) and set about the bathing process. We shut ourselves with both cats into the tiny bathroom upstairs and started with Cali. We picked her first because she is the stupid one and wouldn't know one way or the other. Micah on the other hand is very intelligent and we didn't want him to think we were picking on him... we wanted him to watch Cali and see that she came out fine.
Cali squirmed like a worm the whole time. I eventually just grabbed a towel and put it in the tub with her and used it to hold firmly to her back legs (the only ones with claws) while Chris tried to speak calming words to her and hold on to her front end and head. I have to say this arrangement worked relatively well. She looked a bit like a drowned rat but other than the squirming she was just scared. Okay, really scared. So we took her out and dried her off a bit and braced ourselves for Micah. Oh boy. So in he goes... and... out he goes... so we put him back in trying to get a hold of his hind legs the way we did Cali - but see Micah is smart and he stubborn so he's a fighter. He tried biting Chris's arm and thrashing about - soaked Chris and I both. Eventually I managed to get a good scrub of pet shampoo on his back where the irritation was. We managed to get most of the visible soap off but he jumped out again... so we waited a minute and had to put him back in! Poor little guy. By this time, though he is visibly exhausted he continues to fight - so exhausted tht we can hear him panting a bit. So I have a bucket of warm water and have to slosh it all over him (freaking him out more) in order to get the soap out.
Finally the drama is over and he and I are BOTH tramatized. I held him in a towel for a few minutes and talked softly to him until I could see that his heart-rate had dropped back down to normal. Plus I was soaked and my muscles were a bit shaky myself from the struggle. So I put him down and thought I'd dry him a bit but he would have none of it so I just had to leave him to his own divises (he wasn't soaked or anything just damper than I would have liked). I must say he and Cali both looked like a couple of drowned rats.
So Chris and I cleaned up the bath got all the fur out of the tub and let the babies out of the bathroom. They seem okay - but I'm just hoping they haven't developed some sort of personal vendetta against us now. So overall, quite the experience for all of us. Not something I am anxious to try again.
Moral of the story? When your cat has a skin irritation, take him to the vet and let the vet deal with it.