Max the Dog Looks Like a Fuzzy Caterpillar

Max really, really needed to have his haircut.

However our favorite dog groomer had left a message on her answering machine saying that she'd taken ill and wouldn't be tending to any canines for a while. We decided that her recovery was worth waiting for. We really like the way she groomed our little Wheaten Terrier/Havanese, plus she didn't make us feel like negligent dog owners.

The Spouse and I have endured some unsatisfactory experiences with other groomers during the past two years since we got Max. When we've asked groomers to please shape his hair and not just shave him (because it's way easier to shave him than shape his hair), they'd seem put off, give us attitude and later chastise us because they said we didn't regularly or adequately brush the little guy. (We do but his hair is prone to knots. We do the best we can.)

So we decided to cool our heels as we awaited word from our nice, patient and thorough regular groomer. We waited. And waited. But we never heard from her, despite leaving messages. Meanwhile, Max's hair grew longer still and mats began forming all over him with frightening regularity. We tried to keep up with his grooming but it was very difficult. We would brush him, remove the knots/mats if we couldn't brush them out. Inevitably though, within a few hours of being brushed, Max would get new knots and he'd soon look like an unkempt, homeless canine looking for a spot of food from a kind stranger.

Yesterday The Spouse finally gave up on the waiting and brought Max to yet another new groomer. I crossed my fingers that Max wouldn't be: a) Shaved, rendering him looking like a big-eyed rat and b) That the groomer didn't get all haughty about the fact that we'd waited so long in between haircuts.

And although the groomer was kind and did not shave our pooch -- she shaped his hair with scissors -- he emerged from his doggie "spa day" (if I were to name a living being in our house who needs a spa day, it wouldn't be him . . . but I digress) looking a tad like a fuzzy tan caterpillar, at least when he lays down and spreads out.

Is he still adorable? Yes!

Soft and fuzzy? Most definitely.

But Max no longer looks like my scruffy little dude. He looks like a different pup. But that's okay. Hair grows back.