This first day dedicated to dog lovers everywhere!

This pic, just above is of my girl "Tillie" and my clients pets "MiMi" and "Lacey", who have been all the colors of the rainbow and have been featured in the St.Louis Post Dispatch, the Canadian press, Suburban Journal, the Apa's newsletter and even made it on the channel 2 news!

"Ohhhh... I am a very proud MOM! Tillie puts up with my antics, because she can stop traffic!"

As a pet stylist... and lover of all creatures furry (besides men with hairy chests) I thought I'd start a blog to hopefully humor, educate, and infiltrate pet enthusiasts everywhere! My FUN blog will include pet pics, jokes, pet poetry and tips on pet health and grooming. Also because I sometimes love other stuff too, it may have links to fun sites... like my very favorite http://www.peternoone.com/ , where Peter Noone, of the Herman's Hermits shares his blogs, chats with his fans and has taught me great words like... "guffaw"... which is something I do at his site a lot. In sharing my many interesting pet and people experiences I hope you'll feel the guffaws too!

This grand inspiration came to me today when I went to look up some very funny Groomer Humor at Groomer to Groomer and left giggling! Most people think groomers just play with their dogs all day long and don't realize it's a job that involves tug a war, wrestling, and sometimes even boxing. If I ever have a black eye... your dog probably did it with his foot, cause he was happy to finally see a person "ME" at eye level and was begging for a nail trim last year.

I think all people should know the behind the scenes routine of visiting their Pet Stylist... part of the NEW FASHION industry, because we can beautify even the scruffiest, ruffiest of hounds and you'd be shocked to know... we control a great deal of pricing based on your AT HOME attempts at managing a brush and a comb. This is where the humor hits, because most owners will swear up and down that they just brushed their dog and any shaving would make it ugly, when they bring in a dog who's coat has clearly (at just one glance) turned to dread locks and it can no longer see through the blinders, called matts and what did they just say "But.. but.. my dog will look UGLY"!




Who's going to tell these proud parents, "uhhhhhmmm... Ma'am, Miss, Sir, have you looked at your dog lately? Let me look through those rose colored glasses and check your prescription, cause it must of been your neighbors dog you brushed? No offense"?!

We can't ever come out and say this stuff, so we just choke it back under our breath and try to explain that brushing to the extent that their dogs need it would be severely traumatic and ruin the grooming experience, while they worry cause their dog is shaking in their arms and reluctant to visit another groomer who would dare to follow the owners requests. Once again.. this only being obvious to US "the Groomers" and the frightened pooch who does it's best to say "mom... dad... please don't make me" and "BALD is better! Really!!"

This tid bit of knowledge I'm sharing is to help encourage pet owners everywhere to look at their pets hair, kind of like they would their child's and to take the job of brushing as something you can not procrastinate till next week, but something that should be included in your daily ritual... unless you really want them shaved or bruised from the long over due and procrastinated brushing that dogs don't quickly forget.

If you have any questions about grooming, about pet care, different breeds or any questions about pets at all, I'd love to share some of what I have learned over the years here. This blog is not intended to offend or to insult, since I haven't met you or your dog and can't tell how well you've done so far in the area of brushing. The reason for this blog is to SAVE you money and to make you and your pet's grooming experiences pleasant. I'll call this the TAIL END of my first blogs on dogs entry and hope you enjoyed it!!