King of the Jungle: Cat Gets 'Lion' Cut

With his ruff of fur, fluffy tipped tail and hairy legs contrasting with a closely clipped body – this lucky cat looks like the king of the beasts.

Steven Harrold has been working as an exclusive cat groomer for 23-years and specialises in giving elaborate clips to pampered felines.

Steven baths, grooms and clips all kinds of cats – from extreme maintenance work to elaborate lion and teddy bear style clips.

The practiced groomer gave his own pet cat Pericles the lion clip at his home in Leyton, East London. 

The 10-year-old, cream Persian, underwent the eye-catching clip to keep his long hair neat and under-control.

Steven said: “Very often the coats badly matted and the only way of rectifying the problem is a radical clip.

“These can be done in a more interesting style, by having a lion clip or a teddy bear clip – it reduces maintenance and solves the problem.

“The lion clip, you either hate it or you love it, in the majority of cases when the coat is badly matted a high percentage of the coat has to go.

“Sometimes it’s better to do it with a bit of style, and go for a lion clip.”

The entire process takes around an hour, and can cost up to £120.

Steven said: “I start at the head and try to create a ruff and then work down to shave the tail, the rest of the coat is shaved off with a number 10 blade to create the lion look.

“Cat grooming is a growing industry because people are becoming more aware of the options, they’re taking on long hair breeds and they all need maintaining.

“To try and cope with cats who don’t enjoy the process you have to be patient and gage each cat individually.

“For people that feel that clipping coats is detrimental to the cat I would suggest they see cats in bad condition.”