Cat with Rare 'Cousin It' Condition Doesn't Let All That Extra Hair Slow Him Down

For most of us, cat hair is the price we pay for having these furry little monster in our lives. We stock up on lint rollers, pray to the vacuum gods, and tolerate the occasional, super-gross hairballs. After all, most cats come with hair (and the ones who don’t, like Sphynx breeds, have their own cleanliness complexities). But we haven’t dealt with a cat like Atchoum, a beautiful Persian cat living in Quebec whose hair situation is utterly next level.

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Atchoum (the French version of the sound made by a sneeze), is living with hypertrichosis, a condition that can occur in many mammals—including humans—which can cause unregulated growth of hair. People suffering from this condition have been known to call it “werewolf” or “Cousin It” syndrome, due to the appearance of growing long hair all over their faces—where a human doesn’t usually have much hair. But what does it look like in a cat, who is generally covered in fur?

Related: Cat's Reaction to His Feline Brother Who Got a 'Bad Haircut' Has People Laughing Out Loud

Dealing with Hypertrichosis

For the appropriately-named Atchoum (effectively, Sneezy), extra hair is not going to get in his way. His condition means he has fast and unending hair growth on parts of his body, particularly his face. Luckily, he’s actually owned by a groomer who knows best how to keep his condition from getting in the way of his health and happiness and though she keeps his “mad scientist look” carefully brushed, trimmed, and otherwise maintained she mostly lets this unusual kitten’s appearance remain as natural as popular.

Possibly connected to the condition, Atchoum also has incredibly thick and long claws that required surgical intervention, and extremely tiny teeth. But aside from these minor complications, he’s a healthy, ten-year old cat that does all the usual cat things, like how in this video he is balancing on tall narrow pool ledges, even as his long hair blows all over his eyes.

Dealing With Cat Hair

Atchoum’s human mom, Nathalie Côté likes to joke that she vacuums up to five times a day to deal with her kitty’s prodigious amount of fur, and as a fellow keeper of a long-haired cat (though not quite this long!) I can assure you that this is entirely correct. No sooner have I vacuumed the entire house than my long-haired cats deposit fresh tufts of fur on the carpet. (Landlords who install white carpet—honestly, what are you thinking?) It is somewhat of a relief to know that even a professional groomer with a famously hairy cat is dealing with the same grooming issues that I am.

Solutions to pet hair abound, and trust me, I’ve tried them all. Vacuuming and lint rolling are just the basics. I’ve bought the fancy “uprooting” tool that claims to get even ground in pet fur out of my carpets (I can’t confirm, but it does work well on the cat tree platforms and in tight corners my vacuum can’t reach.) I have “furminated” the cats during blowout season. I’ve tried those nubby grooming gloves. I have chased after them with combs and brushes large and small. The fur keeps coming.

So I have nothing but respect for Athcoum’s family and their valiant attempt to deal with all that fur.

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