Trip to the Groomer

Well, its official, I love our groomer. In the midst of budget cuts, layoffs and a declining market, I would say the $50 for the groomer is well worth it! Here is why...

Joe and I have been working recently to make cuts to our budget. Joe's company, like many right now, is on the brink of extinction in the next month or so. So, again (yes the second time in the last four months) Joe is out of a job and "working for the state" as he likes to call the glorious life of unemployment. Consequently, budget cuts have to be made.

Most of the time, budget cuts are easy, or end up being things or luxuries that we really don't need. Cable, frivoulous trips to Target and other items have all been making thier way out of our usual routine and the saved cash into our pockets. We THOUGHT, that since we live just a few blocks from the "Do it Yourself Doggie Wash" that Freddies bimonthly trips to the groomer could be a luxury that we could live without. "Do it yourself" at a quarter of the price sounded pretty good. Until last weekend.

One dreary Sunday morning, Joe and I decided to give the "do it yourself" haircut a try. We figured we would get up, take Fred to the park first, cut his hair and make it home in time to have a nice Sunday afternoon at home. Ha! We tried a "do it yourself haircut" once before, but Fred was a puppy then and after multiple groomings throughout his three years, we figured he would tolerate it better this time. If we could manage to get him to stand still for a good 20 minutes, we could be in and out of there in no time. Little did we know....

We arrived at the dog wash about 10 minutes before they opened. Annoyed at ourselves for arriving early and having to wait, we sat anxiously outside the door until the owners arrived. They let us in a few minutes later. We decided that Fred would get a haircut and a bath, in that order. This way we could save time and avoid the dryer (his least favorite thing).

The haircut.

The beginning of the hiarcut was fun. You get all the tools, clippers, brush, scissors, etc and feel like a professional, ready to unleash the most fabulous haircut ever on your dog. We were ready to surprise everyone with our skills and a beautiful, well groomed dog at the end. Ha! Good luck with that. We started out fine on the easy parts of Fred....his back and the the top of his head. Then we get to the hard part....EVERYTHING else. Freddie doesnt really like his feet touched, so, when we tried to cut his feet he would pull away. Freddie doesn't like to only stand on three feet, so when we tried to lift his legs to trim them, he would sit, or bend, or pull away again. And so on and so on. People were coming in and out, cutting, washing and drying thier dogs and leaving. There we were, COVERED in Fred fur, still cutting away. I was sneezing and itching and trying to forge on.

Throughout the process Ali (our groomer) gave us pointers on how to cut certain more difficult areas on Fred like his feet, eyebrows and around his boy dog parts. She would come up, grab his paw and demonstrate before we attempted to do the same. Freddie would stand up straight and not move a muscle while she showed us. It looked simple. When Ali came around he was like a little fuzzy statue. "She's just like Caesar. She's a dog whisperer." I said to joe. She left and our boy got the wiggles again.

Finally two and a half hours later we were done with the haircut.

The bath.

Freddie hates the bath. This is quite unfortunate considering he is a MOP and should proabbly have one once a week. In the spring he soaks up mud to his elbows (or what you would assume to be a dog elbow) and in the winter brings in giant chunks of snow on his paws and legs. Consequently, the bath, as usual is a struggle and takes a half an hour. We don't even attemp the dryer.

So, three hours later, covered in dog hair, sweat, and who knows what else...we emerge from the dog wash with a clean dog with a fresh haircut. Not exactly perfect, (I missed a few spots on his stomach and shaved his hind end a little too short) but overall not bad for a days work.

So the moral of the story is.... we LOVE our groomer. And, we just might consider the cost to take Freddie to her for a haircut a necessity rather than a luxury from now on.