Grooming Your Fluffy

Peek!

It's spring here in Wisconsin - at least by the calendar anyway. According to Mother Nature, we're not exactly sure what season it is. On Monday, or Tuesday, or maybe both days, we had snow, sleet, rain and 45 degrees - whee.

Our weather friends on TV are claiming that it will be 80 tomorrow. Let's just see about that.

Ok but I digress. Mocha, for those of you new to the blog, is a labrador and she's shedding her winter coat. She's an older lab and therefore subject to the wierd lumpy shedding that they get in their hindquarters. It's actually fun to pull out. For those of you into peeling sunburn you know exactly what I'm talking about.

She doesn't particularly enjoy it however.

I got out the shedding tool and began brushing against the fur. Pretty soon the two of us were covered in a halo of soft brown fluff. Then a chipmunk dared raise his head in the far corner of the yard. She was gone like a shot!!

Chance was kind of ambling by so I grabbed his collar and started to brush him out too! Wonder of wonders he actually stood still for it. I brushed and I brushed. I fluffed and back combed. I even got out some of the undercoat which floated around us like spiderwebs on Indian Summer afternoons. If I hadn't given him a haircut on Tuesday he would probably look like he weighed 100 pounds.

So furever family, if you're wondering, like I was wondering, how it would be to groom this lovable polar bear looking guy, it's awesome. He let me brush his legs, his back, his sides and even a couple light, light strokes on his head!

He's also ok with a scissors around his face but not quite so wild about the trimmer tool. He also didn't seem to enjoy being trimmed outside but preferred the quiet of my kitchen floor. I've trimmed just about all of him except his tail. When he first arrived here at The Lodge, he was shaved to the MAX because he had been so matted. His little tail looked like a rat's tail. The end was all naked and there was no fur on the last inch of it.

Fluffy friends...I am so excited by the progress he has made here. He's gone from this leaping jumping, standing on the counters to a sweet loving, gives hugs and kisses dog. He comes back when I call him and stops when I tell him NO, you can't cross the street. He sits for his treats although we do need to work on the "take it nice" command. He's free to roam the yard and he came back when I called him when he was juuuust about to go swamp diving - ewwww.

After I walked the dogs yesterday morning, I stopped to look at the pussy willow bush I have in the front yard. The dogs, all three of them, were let off leash and free to roam about the yard. I got a little engrossed in taking pics of the little "catkins" and ignored the dogs.

When I turned around I didn't see Chancey immediately. AAaaaargh - Panic! So I did a quick scan of the front yard and there he was...just a chillin' by the tree.

Woof!