so pretty

Since I’ve been posting all these neglected dog shavedowns, I wanted to post a pic of one that wasn’t a mess! 

Really, most of the dogs I groom aren’t like those ones, but I rarely take pictures of dogs that are in good condition because I don’t think of it or I don’t want to waste time taking pictures.  With the matted dogs I take them as evidence, sort of.  I like to document their condition.

Anyway, I took before and after pics of this Shetland Sheepdog just because he was one of the prettiest I’ve seen.  I just love his color!   Isn’t he pretty?

guess the breed

Before
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After

I’m kind of stumped myself on the breed.  Any ideas?  He’s about 40 lbs. He had a single coat (no undercoat), no webbing on his feet.  The after looks almost like a poodle mix, but there was no curl to his coat, just slightly wavy, so I suppose he could be part poodle.  His hair seems almost like an Old English Sheepdog, but he’s smaller than that.  Maybe an OES mix?  Mixed with what?

Here are some in-progress pics:

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happy father’s day

Here’s a tribute to all you dads out there!

more neglect

I have almost started to get used to this, and I don’t want to because it is unacceptable.  What I’m talking about is the neglect I see all the time at work.  I was looking at the pictures today and imagined looking at them from the eyes of someone who doesn’t see this all the time, and you know what?  It’s disgusting.  I mean, I know it is disgusting, but I’ve started to get desensitized to it.  And I don’t want to be.  I want to remember the shock I first had when I started to see this, when I started grooming at the vet clinic.

One thing that still gets under my skin is the sob stories people give me.  I’m getting sick of them.  If you have been sick and your husband was laid off, then I am very sorry for you, but you need to find another home for your dog if you can’t take care of it.  There is no excuse for this. 

And the lies!

Yes, I’m very sure you tried your best to bathe the dog at home and yes, bathing her probably caused these mats I see all over her.  Yes, you were trying very hard to take good care of her, and that is why I have to wear a surgical mask in order to be in the same room with her without vomiting.

Do people think I’m stupid?  Obviously.

And no, I am not able to make a skirt out of the cast on your dog’s legs. 

And no, I will not give you a discount because you want me to feel sorry for you after you neglect your dog for an entire year.  I would discount you if you were a regular customer who took proper care of her dog. 

(I didn’t exactly discount, but I did not charge extra, so yeah, I did kind of discount.  I did the same thing last year, when she came in in this same condition.  I don’t know why.  I just felt sorry for the dog.)

And I’m mad at myself for not saying any of this to the dog owner.  Instead I just play dumb and nod and say “okay” and tell her I will do my best and that I will definitely have to shave the dog, and yes, of course I know she will start brushing her and she will not get into this condition again.  Same as last year.

Anyway, this is not the first and not even the 20th dog this year that has come in this matted, but I think she may win the award for the stinkiest.  She smelled like vomit, after it had been standing in a puddle in the hot sun for a few days.  With a dead rat soaking in it.

Anyway, I took some pictures for you.  Well, I take pictures of many of these just to document them.  Just in case, I have no idea, but I think it is a good idea.  I have plenty more, but this one shows up pretty good in the pictures.  I mean, you can’t smell it, but you almost can if you really try.

The second to last photo, which is hard to make out, is me holding up her foot so you are looking at the bottom of her foot.  Her entire paw pad was covered in a big mat.  She’s been walking on this for months.  Underneath it the overgrown toenails were also matted over.

The worst thing is that this dog is 15 years old.  So this has been going on her entire life!  The only time she has ever been comfortable was in the two or three months after her groom before the mats and stinkiness completely took over.  Also, this is an indoor dog!  I cannot even fathom that. 

Oh, wait, the even worse than worst thing is that the lady told me that she babysits out of her home.  She babysits out of her home!  No shit! 

How do people live with themselves?

timelessness

When I was in fourth grade, my class always seemed to be in a race to finish tests on time. I don’t know why, but we seemed to get some kind of thrill at being the first one finished. It was always a competition. I was not normally first, but usually not too far behind, probably in the middle somewhere most of the time.

The only reason I even remember that about the class is because of one incident that has stuck with me ever since. It was sort of a personal, eye-opening experience. My own little “aha” moment.

While I was taking a test one day, I noticed myself hurrying to get it finished, as usual. I remember it was a math test. Suddenly, I realized that my hurrying was distracting me from the actual work, and I felt very frustrated and anxious. I was so worried about finishing last, which would make me look stupid, that I kept making mistakes and needing to backtrack and do things over.

So right there, I decided to just stop racing. I forced myself to pay attention only to the numbers and not what anyone else was doing, or how much time was going by. I didn’t care if I finished last; I would not look at the clock. I would not glance around at the other students. I would see nothing other than the numbers on the paper.

I finished my test and started to get up to take my paper up to the teacher’s desk. But when I looked around, everyone else was still frantically writing and working on their tests. I saw other kids glance up, trying to see if anyone was ahead of them. I never finished first, so I thought maybe I had forgotten something. I hesitated, looked at the paper again. Everything was finished. I was pretty sure it was all accurate.

Slowly, I stood up and brought the test up to the teacher’s desk. Finally, as I sat back down, the other kids who usually finished first started to get up with their papers, and I breathed a sigh of relief.

When the tests were handed back the next day, I had gotten a 100% and the teacher had written “Good work!” at the top. 

From then on, I knew how to finish first.  All I had to do was slow down.

going green… kinda

I’ve been on a smoothie kick lately.  It started when we were stuck with a whole watermelon in our fridge because it wasn’t quite ripe enough.  I also had bananas, strawberries and yogurt, so I decided to make smoothies with it.  I crushed some ice to mix in, and added splenda and vanilla extract to sweeten it (the yogurt was unsweetened), and it was delish!  Since then I’ve been experimenting with different combinations of fruit and loving it.  Cantaloupe, strawberries, peaches, pears, etc.  Whatever is on sale, mostly.  I haven’t made a bad batch yet.

I had also been reading about green smoothies and wanted to try these as a way to get more leafy greens in my diet.  I found that frozen, bagged spinach adds a nice texture (makes it thick and cold) and has a mild, grassy flavor when mixed in with the fruit.  I just toss in about a cup, straight out of the bag.  I actually really like the taste.  I tried to get Josh to have one but he can’t get past the green color and the idea of the spinach in it.  I plan to try other greens, and I really want to try adding kale, just because of all the great health benefits, but I will have to start small with that as I’m not sure I will like the taste.

I guess the Green Smoothie thing is big among “Raw Foodists”, and incidentally, frozen spinach is blanched before it is frozen, so it doesn’t exactly count as “raw”.  I’m not a Raw Foodist though and, like with anything, I think some people tend to be a little extreme.  I don’t believe in defining how I eat as a “lifestyle”; I just try to make healthier choices for the most part.  I try to eat as many raw fruits and veggies as possible, but I care more about eating minimally processed foods, at least for the majority of my diet.  (I still fit in junk every now and then!)

Anyway, if you are interested, you can find a lot of videos on youtube that show you how to make green smoothies, and talk about the health benefits to having them every day.  Personally, I think it is a great thing to do for your body, as long as you enjoy them.  I think they are tasty, and fun to make, so I’m going to keep doing it.

Update:  I’ve been making green smoothies with fresh kale or spinach (alternating) each day since writing this.  I’ve been experimenting with mixing different fruits with it, and I feel great!  Lots of energy, no problems with digestion, less “bloat” and fewer skin breakouts (which may be due to hormones, so I will have to wait and see how I look in a couple of weeks! )

I definitely recommend this to anyone who wants to improve his or her health.  I know it might sound gross to you if you are not used to it, but if you go slow, blending more fruit than greens at first, and add sweetener to taste (I use one or two packets of splenda, depending on the sweetness of the fruit), I’m sure anyone can enjoy them!  For example, I just use two leaves of kale (removed from stem), with a banana and a couple other fruits, and add a little cold water and/or ice.  This usually makes two servings and I have one in the morning and refrigerate one for later.

Some of my favorite fruits to mix with greens are watermelon, peaches, kiwi, banana, any citrus fruits (oranges and limes are great), and pineapple.  (Not all in one smoothie though!)  Strawberries are good too, but make the color a little less appetizing!

 

optical illusion

This is a really cool illusion!

Make sure you do what it says and put your finger in the red dot. Just be careful not to actually touch the screen if you don’t want fingerprints.
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quick guest post

Here are Josh’s thoughts relating to my previous post:

Laura asked me to write about being waterboarded. I lasted only 4 seconds, and I think I’m a pretty tough guy (after all, I AM married to Laura.)  I imagined that it would be like holding your breath underwater, but it is not.  Since you are laying at an angle, the water runs down your nostrils, fills your sinuses, and then it feels like pressure is building inside your head.  At this point your heart starts racing for some reason, and I reflexively jumped up.  You can only take about a second of that.  It feels like you are going to have a heart attack, and this racing lasts for quite some time after the actual waterboarding.

The important thing is that there is no safe way to simulate not having control over when the procedure stops, which makes it abundantly clear to me that this could quickly become life threatening if it were done to somebody who is tied down with no control over the length of intervals.  I refuse to believe that this tactic did not result in some case of serious or permanent physical injury, considering the lack of discretion our government used in its administration.  And I can only imagine the psychological damage.

waterboarding

I’m posting this quickly, before he withdraws permission for me to post it!

Josh talked me into doing this after watching this clip of Eric “Mancow” Muller submitting to it on Kieth Olberman.  Apparently, Muller wanted to try it in order to prove that waterboarding is not torture.

“It is way worse than I thought it would be, and that’s no joke,” Mancow said, likening it to a time when he nearly drowned as a child. “It is such an odd feeling to have water poured down your nose with your head back … It was instantaneous … and I don’t want to say this: absolutely torture.”

Here is Josh’s experience:

 

randomness

Just ’cause I like it.

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Chances are your pants are not as fancy as the pair
Of very fancy pants that Mr. Fancy Pants will wear
When everybody’s marching in the fancy pants parade
He’s gonna pass the test
He’s gonna be the best
The best in terms of pants

You look in every catalog you shop at every store
Cause even though you have a hundred pants you want some more
When suddenly you see the greatest pants you’ve ever seen
And even though you know
It’s gonna cost a lot of dough
You have to have the world’s best pants

Say a little prayer for Mr. Fancy Pants
The whole world knows
It’s only clothes
And deep inside
He’s sad

They make the big announcement and the trophy goes to you
You thought you had some fancy pants and now you know it’s true
You look at Mr. Fancy Pants and hold the trophy high
Everybody cheers
While he’s blinking back the tears
He doesn’t even have the best pants

Say a little prayer for Mr. Fancy Pants
It’s all he had
But don’t feel bad
He’d do the same
To you