Traveling Doggie Spa

Earlier this year we were extremely disappointed to learn that our fur kids' groomer was closing her shop. She was the only groomer our sweet babies had ever been to and they loved her as much as we did.

She gave us the name of another local groomer on our last visit.

A few weeks later I telephoned the other groomer and had a nice, long chat with her. She is every bit as passionate in her love for dogs as we are. And she works part time at a local vet's office too. That was a big plus. So I had no problem taking them to her to be groomed.

And she did a good job. We were pleased enough with her work. Although I planned to return to her, luckily I didn't make a follow-up appointment when we left.

The very next day I got a call from our old groomer. She had decided to re-open her grooming business but with a twist. She now had a fully self-contained, mobile unit. She would come to our house!

She asked if we would be interested and willing to come back to her. My first questions were

ARE. YOU. KIDDING. ME??? You'll actually come to our house?

Followed-up by, Do you know just how far it is to our house?

And then - How much is this gonna cost? Actually that was mainly a question in my head to myself because of the distance she would be traveling, although I did ask her about the rates.

Her answers were: Yes, she would come to our house; yes, she knew how far it was to our house; and her rates were more than reasonable. YEA!!!! I was doing a Happy Dance, big time!

So, this past Saturday the doggie spa pulled into our driveway. We were all so excited!

And not just AD, Elliott, Smoke, Dani and me either.

Daughter's 3 fur kids were here too. They had also been customers. In fact, it was Daughter who told me about Jeannie when we first got Elliott.

This is Kasey after her turn. Being a Boston, she doesn't need haircuts. She gets a bath and her nails done. Saturday was a shy day and Kasey didn't much want her picture taken.

This is Earnhardt (Little E or just "E" for short). Isn't he handsome?

And this is Holley. She and Dani got bows in their ears instead of bandannas. (Poor Kasey doesn't have enough hair to attach bows to but then she can be a pretty wild girl and bows probably would last all on 5 seconds in her ears anyway.)

I wasn't sure how long Dani's bows would stay in either but today is Monday. I just checked and they're still in her ears.

Smoke was just worn out from his grooming. He immediately came in the house, jumped up on the couch and laid there for quite some time.

Although we were told that all 3 of our kids took naps while they were in the trailer. The gentle vibration from the generator lulled them right to sleep. Sounds like the generator provided a little massage therapy.

Which made it very nice for Elliott. Although he has always been good at the groomer's, he's never wanted to actually GO to the groomer's. He always kind of sensed it on grooming days and was very stubborn about getting in the car and then going in the shop. While the other kids jumped right in or out of the car, Elliott had to be carried.

Now that our original groomer is coming to us, I think he likes it MUCH better!

Oh, and I couldn't get him to look at the camera. After everyone was done, AD gave them all a treat and Elliott had much better things to do than pose for me.

The kids looked so nice and smelled so good! We're just ecstatic with this turn of events.

PS. I have passed the name of the substitute groomer on to my other friends who have dogs. Hopefully she won't miss us at all after only one visit. I wouldn't hesitate to go back to her if things were to change again. But it was just a no-brainer for us to return to our original groomer. We have a lot of history there.

Determination and Frustration

Our 3 dogs seem to think this box that houses one of our hoses is also home to some kind of rodent.

The box is the first thing they check whenever they go in the back yard.


Two of them are pretty determined but if they can't flush anything out, they go on about their business.


The other one is determined to open the box and get inside to check. See the teeth marks that have been left on the top.


Smoke is the most determined. He just won't give it up. He's convinced there's something in the box besides the hose.

Tuesday night AD let the dogs out about 10pm to take care of any business they might have to do before we called it a night.

Smoke just would not come back in. I could hear him outside trying to find that intruder he just knew was hold up in the hose box.

He whined and he scratched and he dug. Finally AD had to go out, physically pick him up and bring him back inside.

He was filthy.


Which led to this - a late night, right before bed, bath.


And the bath led to this


this


this


and this.

I know Smoke still thinks there's something out there just taunting him. I can see it in his eyes.

He's thinking, "I'm going to catch that elusive invader and then we'll see who gets the last laugh!"

The Result

So this is how Smoke looked after his grooming. Not a lot darker but we could see a slight difference.


Here's another picture of him from a different angle. Although it doesn't look like it in this picture, the hair down his spine appears a tad darker than the rest.

No matter his coloring he's our kid and we love him with all our hearts.

We have a busy, fun weekend ahead. Hope you have a wonderful one too!

Reverse Graying?

When Smoke became a part of our family in 2006 he looked like this.


After his first trip to the groomer's we thought he was living up to his name because he came home looking like this.


Eventually his coloring became more gray.


A few months ago I caught him sleeping on the back of AD's recliner and snapped this photo. See how gray his coat is?


Then a few weeks ago a small dark patch appeared near his tail. At first I thought he must have a bruise or something. But the patch continues to get larger and is working its way up his back as the days go by. Now we're seeing a lot of dark fur underneath the gray.

Today Smoke and the other 2 indoor fur kids have an appointment with the groomer. It makes me wonder what he'll look like when we pick him up this afternoon.

If Smoke's fur really is returning to its original color I'll bet there are humans out there that would like to know his secret.