She really is a lovely cat, or at least will be when she's well. She's a Balinese. Normally, that's a medium-length coat and hardly needs more brushing than a shorthair, but it does need SOME brushing and doesn't take well to living in a field full of burrs and greaseweed.
Himalayans, which have a coat more like a Persian's, are another story entirely. They MUST be brushed out regularly, or that thick coat quickly develops some terrific and nasty mats. So many people get these cats and don't realize or do the work involved; when I was grooming, we got in lots that needed to be shaved down. Lots of them don't have the patience to be brushed like they need (again, usually the owner's fault, because you need to train them to accept it from kittenhood).
Since you bring it up, I was going to throw this into the post above, but didn't want to make it too long. But here are directions for safely dematting an animal:
If you ever get in a situation where you're trying to remove heavy mats near the skin of an animal, ideally you have narrow-bladed, sharp grooming or hair scissors, but any scissor will do. You insert the lower blade into the mat as close to the animal's skin as you can, with the dull part touching the skin and the sharp cutting edge facing away from the animal. You then make a vertical cut upward through the mat, repeating until you can gently pull the mat out in chunks using your hand or an undercoat rake. What you never want to do is cut horizontally between the mat and the skin, which is what people usually try (because it seems like common sense). The skin is so tight with the mat that this method usually results in the person accidentally cutting the skin open...these are unpleasant and telltale wounds.
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Himalayans, which have a coat more like a Persian's, are another story entirely. They MUST be brushed out regularly, or that thick coat quickly develops some terrific and nasty mats. So many people get these cats and don't realize or do the work involved; when I was grooming, we got in lots that needed to be shaved down. Lots of them don't have the patience to be brushed like they need (again, usually the owner's fault, because you need to train them to accept it from kittenhood).
Since you bring it up, I was going to throw this into the post above, but didn't want to make it too long. But here are directions for safely dematting an animal:
If you ever get in a situation where you're trying to remove heavy mats near the skin of an animal, ideally you have narrow-bladed, sharp grooming or hair scissors, but any scissor will do. You insert the lower blade into the mat as close to the animal's skin as you can, with the dull part touching the skin and the sharp cutting edge facing away from the animal. You then make a vertical cut upward through the mat, repeating until you can gently pull the mat out in chunks using your hand or an undercoat rake. What you never want to do is cut horizontally between the mat and the skin, which is what people usually try (because it seems like common sense). The skin is so tight with the mat that this method usually results in the person accidentally cutting the skin open...these are unpleasant and telltale wounds.