Saturdays... ugh...

So for me, Mondays and Saturdays are the worst. Mondays, because any dog that has been boarding over the weekend is going home. But that's another story; when I have a good Monday story, I'll let you know. ;o)

Saturdays are bad because they're very unpredictable. Many people work during the week and don't want the hassle of dropping off/picking up during the week. So they opt for Saturday. Then, by some odd cosmic fate, the ones that come in on Saturday are the hardest, meanest dogs. Or, their owners are, lol. On top of that, sometimes people wake up on Saturday morning and think to themselves, "Ugh, it's Saturday. I don't want to get up. I'll bring (insert pet's name here) to the groomers' on my next day off..." And the best part? They don't call to tell me, so I can rearrange my schedule. Also, we close early on Saturdays, which either means I have to do less dogs, or work quicker.

My day was supposed to include 6 dogs: the Forte dogs (two medium-sized longhaired German Shepard-like mixes with a lot of hair - they're frequent customers), the Schmueli dogs (two Shih Tzu's, a long-haired and short-haired, also frequent), Boomer (a Shih Tzu that needs to be sedated to be groomed since he is too aggressive), and Natasha (a Golden Retriever that is being boarded and - yep, that's right - is going home early on Monday).

When I arrived, the Forte's and Schmueli's were already there. I got straight to work, washing Sher (yep, it's pronounced Cher), the female Shih Tzu first. She has long, thin, silky hair, so I knew she would dry quickly. The Schmueli's were only in for a 'Bath and Trim' - for me, that means I wash and dry them, brush them, and trim around their face, feet and eyes, give them a sanitary trim (around their privates), and even up any stray hairs that might be running amuck. These dogs ALWAYS come in looking - and smelling - awful. And while Sher has long (to her feet) hair, Max has short hair - mostly because I just shaved him about 3 weeks ago. He had been matted, and I was luck to save what little coat I could. So, they should be easy, right?

After I had washed Max (the male Shih Tzu), I brought out Dusty Forte. He's a male, blue-and-tan shepard mix, but he has really thick, Husky-like hair. So I usually wash him first, so he has longer drying time. With 3 baths down, I had a dilemma: no more cage space by the dryers. Unfortunately, the same large cages I use for drying are also the same ones the kennel personnel use for boarding. So I asked Lulu, a friend and kennel worker what we could do.

We wound up moving Billy, a young, sweet, calm Golden Retriever into the cats' boarding room. The Cat Boarding room is also where our bathtub, washer and dryer, and holding cages are. It's quieter there for the cats, but Billy is so great, the cats don't even notice he's there. With a large cage free, I was able to do Paige - Dusty's sister. She looks almost identical, except she doesn't have as thick a coat, and she is black-and-tan. I save her for last, because she has the opposite personality as Dusty: whereas my boy is calm, sweet, and obediant, she is hyper, unruly, and won't usually listen to me.

With all 4 dogs done, I finally went up to the front desk to mingle as my dogs were drying (I had no more dryers left, anyways). I asked the girls (the receptionists) if there were any more scheduled for the day, and they told me no - except that Boomer, the aggressive Shih Tzu, hadn't shown. And that was strange; well, for his mom, it was. So I was down to 5 total dogs.

Now I had to worry about where I was going to dry Natasha, as she was a large dog as well. After some consideration, I decided to come in early on Monday instead, and do her then - I would hate for her to dirty herself by Monday anyways. Now I was down to 4.

I started to get excited - after all, I would be able to go home early (I had plans that night). I took Sher out, and took all the knots in her long, white and tan fur. She's a good dog on the table. It took approxamately 45 minutes to get Sher in tip-top condition. I put her back in a holding cage and went up to the front desk. Sher and Max are well-known for their... untidy habits. So I told the girls to call the Schmueli's and have them pick up soon - Max would only take 15 minutes to finish.

I took out Max and 10 minutes later, another friend and kennel worker, Pedro, came into my room to let me know that Sher had pooped all over her cage, stepped in it (all 4 paws!), and proceded to produce artwork. That is, she placed her colorful footprints all over the walls and floor of the cage. *sigh*

Five minutes later, I was finished with Max and went to inspect the damage. Sher had imprinted her paws in the cage Pedro had moved her to as well. That made 2 cages I had to clean. Plus, I had to rebathe her. Lucky for me, she dries quickly. But... their owners had been called to pick up the dogs. I was NOT going to call them again to say, "Haha! Never mind! April Fool's! Don't come here!".

After that was taken care of, I brought Paige out. Hyper as she is, there wasn't much to do besides brush her out and clip her nails. So then I got Dusty out. He's a little more time-consuming, since he sheds so much and has a thick undercoat. So I used a shedding blade (a tool that has a curve of teeth - it pulls out dead hair and undercoat) and my trusty ol' slicker brush, and half an hour later, Dusty was back in a cage.

Lucky for me, just as I finished Dusty, Mrs. Schmueli came by. I was overjoyed. It's a shame, really. They're such good little dogs that I hate feeling that way about them - but it's necessary and they went home clean (although by now they're probably filthy again).

I was gabbing to some of my coworkers about our plans for later that night when Mrs. Forte came to pick up the dogs. Suddenly, the dogs switch personalities. Dusty, my calm, sweet boy, gets excited. "I'm going home! I'm going home! Homehomehomehomehome..." My excitable PaigeyPoo decides, "OK, mom is here. All is well." And they walk out the door. By the time I leave, it's half an hour to close, and I feel exhausted, especially since there had been some drama in the hospital today. Tempers were flaring, and moods were swinging. Of course, I have some clashes as well (I don't really answer to anyone, since I am my own department, and some people are jealous of that). But I try to ignore them, and just do my job.

Just another day in the Groomer Diaries.