It's a dog's life

My beautiful Liebenhund's Hydrangea (Heidi) turns 7 years old today. Isn't she just a breath of spring beauty?

Yesterday I had the Mobile Dog Groomer come out for an at home spa day for her and Shadow. We'd never used this service before. I was very happy with the service. Mr. Jeff worked on Heidi for two hours and she is tangle free, dematted, undercoat removed, trimmed, ears clean, and smelling like a load of fresh laundry. Shadow only took about 45 minutes but it is nice to be in the same room with him and not be overcome by the smell of deer crap and dead animals.

Mr Mess and I have been discussing different "retirement" business plans for years now. He wants to invest in a business that I can run now and get built up and then we can run together when he retires or one that we can own but have someone else run when he retires. We've toyed with all kinds of ideas. My expertise is in retail but I don't want to try to run my own retail business. BTDT, have the fallen arches and TMJ to show for it. Retail is such a fussy/fickle/HARD business to get into and succeed. Plus the hours, employees and customers can wear you down in no time. I loved many things about working retail when I did it and I am really good at it. But for all the customers that I genuinely looked forward to serving and seeing again, there were the two or three that could just ruin your day or week or month no matter how positive you tried to be. For every employee that became like family, you'd have one or two that robbed you blind and quit the day before your long awaited vacation time. And the hours, forget it, retailers work when everyone else isn't working. Forget holidays with your family, weekends off, or spending evenings with your friends or loved ones.

Maybe someday when I'm a little old red hat wearing widow I'll own a quirky gift shop and metaphysical bookstore and live in a tiny apartment in the back with my cats and dogs and just hang a sign on the door that reads something like,

"Come on in and look around, if the cat won't ring up your sale, give me a holler, I'm in back taking a nap."

Anyhow, one option we'd been discussing is buying a franchise for this mobile dog grooming business. Overhead is relatively low, training is provided, I'd get to spend more time working with animals than people (big plus!), we could hire other groomers to work the business for us and just be owners eventually. Before making any monumental decisions I wanted to see how it all worked from the customers point of view. Needless to say, I'm very satisfied. However, it is a fairly expensive way to get your dog groomed but the convenience and service is far superior in my opinion.

My dog walking friends couldn't believe that I would spend $200 to get my dogs groomed. But in my defense, Heidi is extra because she is "oversized" and I had extra services added on like "furminator" deshedding and trimming of her privates and legs. Shadow was only about $15 more than the same service would be at an average dog salon. Normally I wouldn't even have hime professionally groomed but he was exceptionally smelly and the weather hasn't been quite warm enough for our usual hose-on-the-deck-spa-shower. Plus, manuevering two big, excited dirty dogs into a regular groomer is a pain in the ass most of the time. Heidi gets very excited while at the groomers and spends most of her time panting and jumping around. Yesterday she was her usual excited self when Jeff showed up but calmed down like usual after 5 minutes and enjoyed the attention.

So I'm still not sure if this is the next "career" I'm going to try or not. But it's in the running. (Don't tell my mother about this, she still makes fun of me for my attempts at being a Mary Kay Lady.)

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About getting that kitten: I made a small attempt yesterday. The girls and I stopped at the local animal shelter after school yesterday. But after a frustrating hour there we came home without a new cat. I'm not going to name names (but if you are one of my local readers you'll know that there really is only ONE local animal shelter, so yeah...)but I really don't think I'm ever going back there. I used to volunteer as a dog walker/trainer there and my oldest daughter participated in their Kids-n-Kritters program and my youngest wants to but I haven't signed her up.

While I was a volunteer there I got pressured into adopting an elderly dog that had been adopted and returned 3 times. My experience with them and this particular dog was what led to me stopping my volunteering there. I felt really screwed by the whole experience and it makes me sad because I know they mean well. The only good thing was that it was a learning experience for me and my children and I was able to model proper pet ownership to my children. I made a promise to that dog when I took him home that no matter what, he was in his last home. Even though he ran away two times and I had to go retrieve him from the same shelter I adopted him from (for a fee) I persisted with him for 6 months until his age and physical & mental ailments were too much for both of us. But I held him in my arms and said good-bye when the vet euthanized him and I fulfilled my promise to him.

I know I could never work full time in animal rescue, I'm cynical enough as it is right now. Dealing with the bullshit that is the general public in regards to our society's treatment of our pet animals would push me over the edge. That is why I only volunteered to work with the animals and no public interaction. I feel for the people that work the front desk but there are a few there that I think have been at it a little too long. Someone needs to step away and put someone else in there that has a sense of public relations/service. I know they deal with a lot of asshats both giving up and trying to adopt every day but try to give us the benefit of the doubt. I wonder how many more animals they would adopt out to good homes if they just made the process just a little more user friendly and didn't treat every person/family that came through their doors like a kitten-eating criminal.

I didn't fall head over heels in love with any of the cats there yesterday but there are a few that left a small pawprint on my heart that if I had been treated better by the staff I may have given myself over to providing them with a cushy life full of catnip and hand-knit cat beds. Why is it always the animals that have to suffer because the people are assholes?

/soapbox.

So if you are in the far-western Chicago suburbs and know of a litter of unwanted kittens in need of a home, I'm interested in taking one. All of the 5 cats that have been a part of my adult life have come to me this way. I thought I'd support the hard work of local rescuers but now I'm thinking the old fashioned way may still be the best. I'd especially like a black or calico this time.

BTW, the shelter I'm talking about here isn't the rescue organization I linked to in my earlier post on Monday. They foster all of their animals in local homes. I've had a bad experience with them and a dog I tried to adopt from them too. I don't hold that against them, the dog was just certifiably insane and it didn't come out until he'd been with us for 3 months. I may still call them about the black polydactyl kittens they have.