| Shave and a haircut |
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| Local Content - Staff Blogs |
| Written by production |
| Wednesday, 03 February 2010 19:33 |
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I finally cut CT’s hair. CT, if you are wondering, is the white fluffy little dog my brother, Clayton, left for me to dog-sit - about a year and a half ago. In fact, I was dog-sitting so long last year I finally bought CT (which stands for Countessa) a doggy license which I just renewed. Before her haircut CT looked like a big white ball of fur. Now she looks kind of like a worrt. If your are not a Star Wars freak, then you may not know that a worrt is the pet Jabba the Hutt kept. They are also known as frog-dogs, and yes I am a little embarrassed to know this much Star Wars trivia. But hey, it could be worse. Rob Ficiur might be a sports columnist by day (oh, ya, and a teacher) but he is also a closet Trekkie, not that I’d ever tell anyone his dark secret. Anyway, the last time I got CT’s fur cut, I felt like the one who’d been clipped since the experience cost me about $60 - which is much much more than it costs me to get my hair cut professionally. So I decided to save a few long-term dollars and buy myself the instruments to do the job myself. It seemed like a good idea at the time, but once I got started I found out it is a lot harder to clip a dog’s fur than one would think. They are squirmy little fellows. I am not sure if all of them dislike the sound hair clippers make, but I can swear to the fact that CT doesn’t like the noise they make at all. And her hair was pretty matted. I worked and worked to get the worst of the mats gone, sometimes having to shave her pretty close to the skin to rid her of them. Then, just to even the cut out, I had to shave all of her pretty close to the skin. Now she looks like a newly shorn pink little lamb - well, skin-wise anyway. But size and shape-wise, she looks just like Jabba the Hutt’s favourite pet. As usual, dad had to give me a critique on the haircut. Dad: (Eyes wide in mock astonishment) CT! What happened to you, you poor little thing. Did you get into a fight with a lawn mower? Or is it just a bad case of the mange? Me: (Already getting grumpy) You know very well I cut her hair. Dad: (Holding CT on his lap with her leaning against him like he was her only friend in the world) But Delynda, you were supposed to leave some hair behind. Dogs aren’t supposed to have bald spots, you know. Me: Hey, come to think of it you were asking for a trim, weren’t you? Now I got these fancy clippers I could just - well, zip-zip, and you would be all done. Dad: (Giving me the fish-eye while rubbing his fairly shaggy head) You aren’t coming near me with those things. I see what you did to that poor little dog. Anyway, I am not a dog. You can’t use dog clippers on me. Me: (Evil grin) Sure I can. Dad: (Threateningly) Not if you ever want to sleep soundly in this house again. Knowing him to be quite vengeful, I decided to give up - for a while anyway. The other problem (besides aesthetic) about clipping CT is now she can fit between our fence railings again. We have put up several barriers, but she always seems to weasel her way through them. I’ll be coming home from work, opening the door to the store, and suddenly CT is standing right by my foot, wriggling all over. I ask her how she managed to get out of the fence this time, but she never answers, just wriggles harder looking happy to have found me at last. Well, that is one big difference between dogs and dads. When you give your dog a bad haircut, she doesn’t hold a grudge at least. |