It Has Been A Day!!

Sometimes it is just better not to get out of bed at all.

Today was one of those days.

I didn't feel a 100% percent when I woke up this morning.

I ended up leaving the house later than I should, but I thought that I was still okay, because there is no traffic into work on Saturday mornings, so we actually get there 10 to 15 minutes sooner than during the weekdays.

Well, I thought too soon.

I needed gas, so I had to stop for that.

There goes about 10 minutes.

Then, a quarter of the way to work I ran into a backup.

A backup on Saturday morning.

They were doing road work, and that wasn't all.

When they finally let our side of traffic go, they were detouring us.

Not that big of a deal, but it was going to add another 5 or so minutes to the drive.

So, I take a side road to get back on track.

The only problem is, once I reach our usual road into work, there are 3 Mack work trucks turning onto the road in front of me.

They were from the road work that I had just been detoured from.

I followed them half of my way into work.

They were going a least 10 miles under the speed limit.

Add 10 more minutes to my commute.

I remember thinking, while I was following behind those trucks, that I hoped this was not a bad omen for the day.

Why the heck did I have to think that?

I have a really bad habit of things popping into my head and then coming true. :/

If I had only known what was ahead, I would have turned around, gone back home, and climbed under the covers.

We were close to 10 minutes late for work.

Why is it that all of your customer show up on time for their appointments only when you are running late?

My first dog of the day was a 16 year old Cocker in for a simple clipdown.

I have groomed this dog 3 other times, with no problems.

He was scheduled as my first dog of the day so that I could get him done and back home as soon as possible.

After taking him from his owner, I placed him in a kennel to settle for a few minutes because he was really shaking.

I got the tub and some warm shampoo ready for the Cocker, and then went to get him out of the kennel.

He was patiently waiting and had stopped shaking.

I put him in the tub and started to soap him up with the warm shampoo.

I noticed that he had some dry poop on his rear, but when I went to check it out, he got a little upset and pulled away, so I figured that I would let the warm soap soften it up before I tried to get it off.

He was a little antsy and moving around the tub a lot, but nothing unusual for an elderly dog.

I let him move around and just followed him, continuing to soap him up.

I got him all soaped up and let my hand slide down over his rear to see if the crusty poop had soften up when.....he started to do that old dog scream.

That scream that some older dogs will do when you try to dry them with the big dryer.

He was screaming and flinging his legs all around.

Crap, crap, crap..........

I grabbed him up out of the tub.

Let me tell you it is no easy feat to hold onto a soapy dog while it is squirming in your arms and screaming.

I held him tight to my chest and walked out of the grooming room into the Self-Serve.

Thankfully we didn't have any Self-Serve customers at the time.

It did the trick.

The change in scenery made him stop screaming and squirming.

Now this dog does have a history of seizures, but he had not ever had one with me before.

This was also not a real epileptic seizure.

It was an old dog freakout seizure type, but not truly a seizure, for lack of a better description.

I headed back to the tub.

My goal was to rinse the soap off and get this dog back home immediately.

He was now quite and settled in my arms.

I took him back into the bathing room and started to put him in the tub again.

Before his feet even touched the tub he went into a full blown epileptic seizure.

He went stiff and his body started to jerk.

My mind was racing.

I told my husband to call the owner.

I let the Cocker lay down in the tub, rubbing and talking to him.

I was praying.

What to do? What to do?

On top of the seizure, he was also shivering....I made a split second decision.

I started to rinse him off as quickly as I could while still rubbing and talking to him.

I  felt had to get that soap off of him.

I felt like it was taking an eternity for the seizure to stop, and for me to finish rinsing.

I was also thinking, 'am I doing the right thing?!'

Next, three things happened simultaneously.

I finished rinsing him.

His seizure stopped.

His owner walked in the door.

Once the seizure stopped, the Cocker was very weak and panting, but seemed himself.

I put towels down for him, and put him on them to help soak some of the water off of him.

I also wrapped him up with a towel.

I was still worried about him because he still could not stand.

Thankfully, by the time I finished  toweling him off, he stood up.

I wrapped him in another towel and took him, towel and all up to his owner.

His owner understood and agreed with my decision not to try to dry him anymore, or do any more grooming.

I felt so bad sending that dog out of my shop wet.

But, at the same time I was glad he was back with his owner.

I still had a full day of grooming ahead of me.

It took me till noon to finally ask my husband to call and check on the dog.

I was so afraid to hear bad news.

His owner said that he was doing just fine. :)

The rest of the day went on smoothly....until.....

I was grooming a Jack Russel Terrier.

You must always be on alert with her because she is a jumper.

If she thought for a second that she could jump out of the tub, or off of the table, she wouldn't waste a second doing so.

I was concentrating on grooming her and keeping her on the table when she suddenly stiffened and started a shrill whimpering.

YOU HAVE GOT TO BE KIDDING ME!!!!!

That was all I could think.

I crabbed onto the dog and took a good look at her.

She was still stiff.

She was still doing this weird shrill whimper, but she was also doing something else....

....she was staring.

AT HIM!!!!!!

BOOTS!!!

My husband had let our shop cat into the grooming room.

The cat was sitting on my daughters grooming table watching the Jack Russel.

Mean while the Jack Russel wanted him in a bad way.

I called my husband to get the cat out of the room.

The Jack Russel immediately relaxed, and me?

I was ready to take up drinking.

Too bad I don't like alcohol.

So I finished my grooms without anymore problems.

We were waiting for the last couple of dogs to be picked up.

One was another elderly, blind dog.

I was taking two of my dogs out to the bathroom when the owner of the elderly dog came to pick-up.

My husband waited on her.

I watched the owner and her Grandson walk the elderly dog out of the shop and to their car.

The Grandmother got into the car leaving the grandson to get the elderly dog into the car.

The dog walked past the car door and the boy yanked her backwards with the leash.

Non too gently I might add.

I could hear the boy yelling at the dog to get in the car instead of just picking her up and putting her in.

The dog struggled and tumbled back out to the ground before finally getting in.

I couldn't help.

I was across the parking lot and had two of my dogs with me.

I was not happy when I walked back in the shop.

I spend so much extra time taking care of my customers dogs, especially the elderly ones, only to have the dogs own owners miss handle it.

I told my husband that that owner better not call back to say that her dog was hurt after what I saw in the parking lot!

So, that was the end of my grooming day....or so I thought.

Now, I have a feeling that I may have over reacted to this particular event, but that was the mood I was in.

I got a notification that someone had commented on one of my grooming videos on YouTube.

So I read the comment.

It was not an out and out mean comment, but it was an accusing comment.

Enough so that I felt I needed to defend myself.

Although I think I may have gone overboard since it took me four reply's to say all that I wanted to say.

Actually, knowing me, I could have said a lot more. :/

The comment left on this video just proves to me that people see only what they want to see.

If you would like to check out what I am talking about, here is a link:

Groomers Nightmare 

My reply's are to a comment left by silvike. 

As groomers, do you think that I over reacted?

Probably.....it has been a very long day.

✂ Happy Grooming, MFF ✂