Thursday, December 1, 2011

Striking gold with a side order of laughter

So my favorite brother in law has told me that he is so happy I have the job I have now. He loves the stories I come home with, although Mindy was a little worried about that when I told her that he said that. She asked me what kind of stories I was telling them and I reassured her it was nothing too embarrassing. But hey what would the fun of being a groomer be if there weren't a few laughs along the way.
I was so happy my family, with the exception of dad because he had to work, got to meet Mindy and Joseph so now they know who I'm talking about when I tell them my stories. Everyone in my family liked them and I always have such a good time at work when I'm with them. I decided I'd better start writing some of these things down before I forget them.
Today for example started off kind of shaky. I haven't slept well in the past two days and I was tired. I did the first dog - a little Yorkie, very cute but not as cute as Priestly I have to stay loyal to the little jewel of my eye, Mindy worked on the van while I tried to wake myself up. But then to my surprise Mindy suddenly declared that she had forgotten her phone. Not moments later my phone rang, so I went to grab it from my purse and surprise surprise it was Joseph calling. He asked if he could speak to Mindy, so smirking I handed the phone to her. Joseph then informed her that she had forgotten her phone. As if she hadn't noticed. Snickering I went back to work while Mindy talked on my phone.
The second dog we did was a bear - a short-haired German Shepherd. That dog looked like a bear my goodness he was big. And he shed all over we could have made two small dogs with all the hair we brushed out of him. But he was rather cooperative so I won't complain about him. The groom went fairly fast but because he was so big and had so many clumps of loose hair it tooks us a while to brush them all out. But finally we did we both gave him a bath and while I was waiting for the last of the water to drain from the tub some hair got caught on the hair catcher and made a rather loud raspberry. But the funniest part about that was that it was completely quiet at the time the tub made that noise. Then Mindy and I both burst into fits of laughter. Mindy told me that she thought it had been me farting and had been surprised because I've never farted in front of her and I hadn't given her any warning whatsoever. However, when the raspberry sound that the tub made lasted longer than a normal fart would she realized it wasn't me making that sound. I would have been rolling around on the floor laughing if it hadn't been covered with hair. But the thought that she thought I was farting in front of her just really tickled me. We giggled about that the rest of the groom before heading to our third dog.
The third dog we did was a Shih Tzu. Mindy told me to do the teddy face so she could see what it looked like because I am going out on my own again tomorrow. So I worked on the teddy face while she worked on everything else - nothing really eventful happened, unfortunately, but we had some interesting conversations talking about the presentation she'd given for her class the day before, what I had done during my day off, and the up coming holidays. After we bathed and dried the Shih Tzu I went to work adding the finishing touches to the teddy face and when I told Mindy I was ready to inspect she didn't have one thing to touch up. I was thrilled and Mindy was so proud of me. I think if I had felt any higher I would have sprouted wings and flown away. Mindy is the toughest critic I've ever had and for her to say my face was perfect was such an amazing thing to hear. So we gave the dog back and headed to our next one.
The next one was a Labradoodle and he was HUGE! I've seen Labradoodles before but this one took the cake and the icing with it. Luckily we were only giving him a slight trim and brush and bath. Nothing really exciting happened during that groom either until after we'd bathed him and Mindy started to dry him. She left him in the tub to dry him and I watched after sweeping up the hair and clipping his nails. She was only halfway done and the tub was covered in black hair - so I smirked and told Mindy that she might have noticed I'd shaved my legs in the tub again. She laughed and told me she'd prefer that I shave my legs at home - I told her the reason there was so much hair in there was because I'd shaved my armpits too - she giggled about that for several mintues while more black hair flew off the dog and clung to the sides and basin of the tub.
The next dog we did a pug. Well, I think she was a pug she didn't have the squashed in face most pugs do. It was just another bath and brush. Mindy wanted to see how long it took me to do it. She said it should only take me twenty minutes... so I went to work while she watched. Twenty minutes later... and I was taking the dog back into the owner. Mindy was so thrilled.
The final dogs we did were an English Sheepdog, which Mindy had to shave bald because he was so matted, and a Shih Tzu who wasn't in much better condition. Mindy and I chatted a little about Tuesday when I had been out with Joseph and she mentioned the Schnauzer I had done who had tried to bite me every 5-10 seconds. He was a nasty little booger and I had muzzled him after he'd tried to bite me before I'd even touched him. I've learned by now that if a dog is acting aggressive it is better to be safe than sorry. I'm glad I did as he was going to bite me to really get me rather than bite me to warn me. But Joseph had called me Wednesday afternoon to see if I remembered anything growing on the Schnazuer's but - a lump. I told him I had and that I'd pointed it to him when I'd been grooming him. Joseph realized I'd pointed it out to him and said he felt really stupid because when the Schnazuer's concerned owner called to inquire about it Joseph told her he didn't know anything about it - but I had shown it to him and he had seen it. So he had to call her back and tell her that he really had seen it. Those last two dogs were such a mess they took us a while to finish. The English Sheepdog kept farting and stinking up the van and Mindy would cry out in disgust every time he did. I didn't know whether to laugh or keep my mouth shut so I wouldn't inhale more than I needed to of the disgusting fumes the dog was releasing so I opted to bite my lip and pretend I couldn't smell it. By the time we'd finished we were both tired and ready to call it a day.
Some of my favorite highlights of the day were the bathtubs funny noises, Mindy keep having to ask me if she could use my phone, Joseph calling my phone and asking me directly for Mindy, Mindy forgetting that she didn't have her phone and reaching for the GPS to call a customer, Mindy being proud of my grooming.

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