PetGroomBossPro Blog — Cat Grooming

Coat Notes for Longhair Cats: Writing What the Next Groom Needs to Know

Longhair cats are where a lot of mobile cat work comes from. Persians, Himalayans, Maine Coons, Ragdolls and plenty of domestic longhairs are booked because the owner cannot keep the coat up at home. That makes the coat the center of the appointment, and it makes the coat history worth writing down.

This article is about the writing, not the grooming. How you handle a longhair coat is your skill. What PetGroomBossPro does is hold onto what you learned so the next appointment starts there.

Coat Is a Setting and a Note

In Saved as Cat: How Each Cat Is Recorded on the Visit and Carried Forward, the coat was one item on the pet record. For longhair cats it deserves a closer look, because it shows up in two places.

First, the coat setting: Short / Smooth, Medium, Long, Double Coat, Curly / Doodle, Wire or Hairless. For most longhair cats that is Long, and it shows on the groomer's card next to breed and size.

Second, the notes line. The coat setting tells the groomer the cat is longhaired. The note tells them what this particular coat has been like.

What a Useful Coat Note Says

A coat note is useful when someone who has never met the cat can read it in the driveway and know what to expect. Some examples of the kind of thing groomers write:

• “Mats tend to come back behind ears and under front legs.”
• “Coat in good shape at 6 weeks, rough at 10. Keep to 6.”
• “Owner brushes the back, not the belly.”
• “Comb-out only, owner does not want any length taken.”
• “Last visit needed de-matting on the britches. Quoted and approved.”

Notice what these have in common: they are about this cat, on this schedule, with this owner. They are not instructions on how to groom. They are the history.

Keep It to One Line That Gets Edited

Each pet has one notes line for the cut and behavior, and it carries forward to the next visit. That is a strength and a reason for discipline. If every groomer adds a sentence every visit, the line becomes a paragraph nobody reads.

A better habit is to edit the note rather than add to it. If the mats behind the ears have stopped coming back, take that out. If the owner moved from 10 weeks to 6, change the note. The note should describe the cat as it is now.

For one-off observations that matter to the owner but not to the next groomer, the grooming checklist has its own note for the customer. That is covered in Writing the Note for the Cat Owner at the End of Every Groom.

Coat Notes and Add-Ons

Longhair coat notes often point toward add-ons. If de-matting shows up on most visits for a cat, the office can see that from past jobs and from the note, and quote it up front instead of explaining it at the door.

Add-ons such as De-Matting are ticked on the job, with whatever price you set. When they are on the job, they are on the invoice, and they show on the groomer's card so nothing is skipped or done for free by accident. More on that in Add-Ons on a Cat Appointment: Ticking De-Matting, Ear Cleaning and Nail Grinding on the Job.

Coat Notes and the Schedule

Coat notes are one of the best reasons to put a longhair cat on a repeat schedule. When the note says the coat holds up at 6 weeks and not at 10, the conversation with the owner is easy, and Add Recurring Grooming can book the cat on the same weekday, time and van every 6 weeks.

The software does not decide the frequency for you, and it does not suggest one. The frequency is picked per client. What the note gives you is a record to point to when you and the owner choose.

The Checklist on Arrival

The grooming checklist starts with a line for coat and skin checked on arrival, and has a line for brushed out / de-matted. Those lines are there for every pet, dog or cat. When the groomer ticks them and writes a short customer note, the office can see on the job what the coat looked like that day, and can print it on a Grooming Report for the owner.

Over time, the combination of the carried-forward note, the checklist on each job and the before and after photos gives you a plain record of how a longhair cat's coat has gone from visit to visit.

Write It Once, Read It Every Visit

A longhair cat seen every six or eight weeks is a long time between appointments, and memory does not hold up that long across a busy route. A short, current coat note on the pet record does. For the rest of the cat setup, from services to scheduling, visit the cat grooming software page.