A Big Day For The Household Dogs

I work on Saturdays but have Mondays off. It's a nice arrangement for making weekday appointments and on a recent Monday I awoke with several appointments for dogs beginning at 7:00 AM for Seamus at PetSmart to get his second grooming session. Here's my big boy just before his haircut:

PetSmart doesn't open until much later, but someone is always there to unlock the door for those arriving for early morning grooming appointments. I was pleased to note that Seamus acted happy to be returning. He must have enjoyed his first grooming session. I'm not too sure the same could be said for the young lady who had to deal with him:

I coaxed Seamus up onto a grooming table to get a photo and he immediately went all rubber-legged on me. That's why he's difficult to groom. I don't know how they get him to stand up to clip his legs and belly:

Then I took Daphne and Clover to the vet's office. They too were happy to see everybody. They didn't know it yet, but this was their day to be spayed:

I left them at the vet's and went home to get some chores done. I felt guilty as I drove away, knowing that when I returned, my two little Papillon girls would be feeling pretty sore and woozy:

I picked up Seamus later in the day and he certainlylooked much thinner with all that wool removed from his wide body:

They left enough wool on his head and ears to give it the classic Poodle shape:

And Fergus posed with Seamus in front of the Rose of Sharon bushes. I'd just removed a ram's horn shaped toenail from Fergus' dew-claw, but he apparently hadn't suffered any ill effects:

Later on, I stopped back at the vet's to pick up Clover and Daphne. They were happy to see me but feeling woozy and sore, poor little girls. I brought in Seamus to weigh him and discovered that he'd lost 10 pounds, down from 130 to 120. He's still a chunky Poodle but at least headed in the right direction:

Once home, the two Papillons just wanted to sleep and feel miserable:

Bramble kept a watch on Clover, apparently worried that something was wrong with his canine friend:

Daphne didn't want to lie down. She just stood in one corner after another, all hunched over and feeling miserable. But by the next morning, both pups were back on their feet and rapidly returning to normal. A few days later, you'd never know that anything had happened. All is well once again:

Seamus Gets His First Beauty Treatment

I can't afford to take my dogs to groomers, but when I tore a calf muscle recently, I was just too lame to get down on the floor and give giant Seamus the haircut he needed. So I made an appointment at PetSmart and hoped for the best. It took over 5 hours for them to finish, but when I picked him up I was stunned. He was quite the handsome dog. He actually looked like a Poodle, at least in the face. I even tipped the groomer. I brought him straight home and snapped his picture beside a rose bush:

The other dogs were overjoyed to see their big buddy, and especially little Clover, who jumped all over him. The dogs went out into the back yard together to do their business, enjoy the sunshine and annoy the neighbors:

Crabby little old Winky thought Seamus looked and smelled funny, but I thought he had been transformed into a beauty:

Clover is in love with Seamus anyway, and was happy to flirt with her newly beautified beau:

All the dogs enjoyed a few minutes of getting reacquainted before we went back indoors:

Seamus' no longer has a wooly, greasy, sheep-like coat but a soft frizzy Afro. Well, that'll last until the next time he covers himself with swamp mud. I'll just enjoy it as long as I can: