A dog on the table

**** Note: Readers be forewarned, this is a ranting post. If you do not like whining, just skip it. If you are curious about what a dog groomer has to complain about, read on....

You've seen them everywhere... A bent old woman with fluffy fluffy hair and a little dog on her leash with fluffy fluffy hair. Yesterday I had a run in. Maggie Hatt and her little shitzu Colby. (Names have been changed to protect the not so innocent) Maggie comes in.
"OOOHHHHH, my arm it is hurting so bad, and my knees! My knees!"
"What happened Maggie?"
"I've been giving Colby his baths and he has hurt me....."
Red flags one and two: She has been bathing her own dog, which she doesn't brush. That means whatever tangles and mats Colby started with, they are bigger, meaner and cemented into his coat now. Also, he is a Shitzu. If he hurt her, that means he's a hellion in the bath.
"I'm so sorry Maggie.."
interuppting "Yes, and I can't brush him. It hurts him so bad and he doesn't like it."
Red flag three: She has trained him to hate brushing and fight until she gives up and lets him go.
"How would you like him groomed?"
"I want him, I don't know, like 2 inches long all over. I want him to look like a teddy bear or a puppy."
OK, barring the two different animal species, She wants him too long to clip, which means hand scizzoring the whole dog. Sigh.
'OK, I'll see what I can do."

So long story short, he's actually a nice dog but hyperactive and afraid of everything. He fights being brushed, which unfortunatly I have to do all over. He's afraid of the clippers, the dryer, the kennel, my smock, well everything in my shop I guess.
After fighting with him and his wispy coat, I throw him in the bath, condition the heck out of him, rinse and dry. At this point I am sick of this dog who has pooped in the bath and on the table. Forget the 2 inches, he's getting shaved. I decide one inch will be fluffy enough, so I start to clip him and he is terrified of the clipper. I mean scratching, biting terrified. I get him in a chokehold Mr. T would be proud of and clip the little bugger. I hand scizzor his legs and head to moderately OK ness. Then the nails. He's screams when he feels the least pressure. By the time I'm done my nerves are shot and my back is killing me.

But the washmop looks adorable. I mean Cute. I potty him, call her, and cleanup while I wait for her to come. It was such an ordeal that only now do I realise my second dog is a no-show.

She shows up.
"Oh he is so cute blah blah blah." fine. I just want to go home and feed my screaming baby.
"How much?"
"30 dollars please."
"Oh, my husband and I are on a fixed income." What? He is a real estate agent! What's fixed about that?
"Oh."
"And he thinks we spend to much on Colby anyways."
I'm getting a little heated. It would be better if she just paid and took little Colby home, who has peed on my foot in excitement when he saw her.
"Well, having a pure bred can be a little extra time and money. Colby is no ordinary dog and his coat needs extra care. I was going to suggest you bring him in monthly so we can keep him looking cute and fluffy. (instead of twice a year and being mistaken for a dirty welcome mat) I'm sure you and your husband thought about this when you first got him. That will be 30$ please."
Mollified by the thought that her baby is extraordinary, she pays up and leaves.

Just another day in the exciting life of grooming. While writing this, I thought of my brother Matthew, who had to try and decorate the homes of dozens of Maggie types. Now that would make ya crazy.
One last tidbit- as Mattie leaves, her fluffy transparent hair almost lifting off in the faint breeze she says:
"Oh! Do NOT go to the new hairdresser! She doesn't even know how to back comb!"

Happppeeeey thangsgeeeving!!!

Here's our table for Thnksgiving. It seemed so small with only three places set. We had a nice dinner and played cards afterwards for hours. Then we watched the Italian, a russian movie about an orphan looking for his mom. It was incredibly slow moving ala most foreign films, but the ending was happy. I am a total happy ending kind of girl. Life is tough enough. I hear and deal with so many horrible things going on with people and children that when I watch a movie I don't want it to be like real life. I want it to be like imagination. I know this is shallow and if you look at movies as an artform, terribly narrowminded. But I tend to look at movies like asperin or a ferris wheel trip. Take me somewhere besides here, tell me a good story, a leave me with a pleasant feeling. I guess movies are my cheap therapy. How do you like your movies?

And in other news, here are my chinks:

I'm not sure why the pics loaded like that but you get the idea, The tops and little doohickeys on the sides under the cochos are hand tooled. I think I am going to try and sell them at the artisans' show here in Meeteetse in Dec. I really like them, especially the tooling design, but I want mine to be made of softer, thinner leather.

Getting sick of the video....

So I understand all five of you who read my blog are probably getting sick of the caleb video by now. Ron and I got back from Vegas last week and things just haven't seemed to stop.



Las Vegas was well, Las Vegas. Part of me wants to really pump up this trip with all the amazing things God did, but to me personally it wasn't that kind of outreach. Last year I was six months pregnant, which was interesting, but I was still my own person so to speak. I could go go go. This year I took Caleb and left later than Ron so we were only there five days. I felt really out of the loop and this year there seemed to be less cohesiveness within our ministry team than past years. Add on to that the fact that the only time Ron and I are really involved with the PBR is during the finals with the outreach.

So it was a bit awkward, a bit discouraging. At least for me. The gals from the Outreach put on a hospitality afternoon for the riders' wives and I really enjoyed that. Just talking and relating on a real level with some of these women. Ron is persevering with the stock contractors, they're a tough bunch to nail down in one spot! The church service went really well, which was encouraging for everyone. They held it at 8 o'clock in the morning because the perf started at 11:00. I didn't really think anyone in Vegas would be interested in an 8:oo church service but nearly 1200 people showed up, which was great!

When we got back the latest DTS was returning and we were hosting their graduation at the church. I helped out with their debrief week, which gave me an opportunity to do a bit of teaching. I really enjoyed that. I talked about how to share a 2 month outreach in 5, 10, and 30 minute segments. Also a bit on how to reenter life after being gone and being a part of such amazing things. This last school had been in Pakistan- they had great experiences and great stories to tell.

I've started Christmas prep since I will be making a lot of gifts this year. I finished my chinks and will post a pic soon, but this is a LOOOONG post so I'll let you go with that.