Elizabeth October 18th, 2008

A few weeks ago I realised that my dog, once fluffy and adorable, had begun to resemble a woolly mammoth. It had been six months since his last haircut, and he was starting to feel the heat with Spring suddenly hitting. The time had come.

Normally, I’d give him a haircut myself. The average “terrier cut” always makes him look a bit weird, so I normally just take care of it myself. This time though, I decided that he needed a whole lot of re-shaping by a professional groomer so that his haircut grew out nicely.

I regularly pass Laundrymutt on Bridge Rd, and decided to give them a try. I had to wait almost 3 weeks for an appointment, but decided it was worth waiting for a really nice haircut.

Today was the day. I took a “before” shot of the grizzly bear before we left:

Then I loaded him into my hand luggage, and called us a cab:

Once we arrived, I had a lengthy discussion with the groomer. Short ears, keep his front feet nice and long to keep the white bits, keep his cheeks a bit chubby and scissor-cut his legs so that they don’t look like sticks. I even provided pictures, such as this little number:

Tim went to pick him up a few hours later, and sent me an SMS on their trip home. “Oh my God,” he said, “you will not recognise him”.

Apparently, this is the closest approximation of that photo that the groomer was able to come up with:

I think that Harry senses my disappointment in his appearance. It might be the way that I just stared blankly at him for an hour straight, as though he was an alien that had fallen from the sky. Or maybe it is because I assured him that we would use an old photo in the “free to a good home” ad.

(Hopefully, he didn’t hear me asking Tim, “Can we please buy a new one now?”.)

Poor little animal. Let’s hope he doesn’t see his reflection any time soon.

• Harry , Life
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