This is Phoebe and this is how she looks before her first visit to the salon...
This is Phoebe after...are those not the cutest eyes...
This is Jeb...before the salon...
This is his royal highness after...These lucky Shihzhu puppies were rescued from the local pound, what lucky pups indeed. I hope the rest of the litter fared as well as these two pups. My friend Mary Ann has been a loyal customer of mine through all my years of grooming and was ecstatic when she heard I was grooming part time again. She has had 4 Shihzhu and I have groomed them all from puppies, as two of her pack are recently deceased, these two fur balls are the replacements...what a troupe!
Now grooming out of my home and not in the stress of operating a busy shop in the city, I can take my time and it's also a more relaxing environment for the dogs too. There was a time when I groomed up to 15 dogs a day, every day, for 25 years...argh...my aching back and lungs. A lot of hard dirty work, with it's share of injuries, although I have only been bitten once in all those years, you have other ailments, such as 'groomer's lung'. This is a condition a groomer gets from not wearing a mask, as your lungs fill with hair clippings, causing a condition similar to emphysema, causing heavy breathing and a cough that will rival a heavy smoker, of which I have never smoked.
But now I wear a mask and just deal with it, it really does help. But the tennis elbow and spine curve are things that just have to be dealt with, as with many these days, a part time job is essential...and if you love animals and have that special gift...you take the risk...
and if you're a 'dog-whisperer' you know what I mean...
