Its time (updated 8:50pm)

Poor Woofy. He has been in desperate need of a haircut for far too long. He needed to get his haircut a while ago - hmmm, maybe like in December. You know how they get - a little shaggy and the hair is just a little too long. That was him in December. But it was busy. The holidays. And there simply was no time to make an appointment or to bring him in. No time? Maybe no desire to add one more thing to the list...

So by the time I felt recovered from the holiday busy-ness (read: end of January) he needed a haircut BADLY. But by that time it was coooold outside. Like 0 degrees cold. And how nice would it be to shave Woofy and then send him out into arctic temperatures. Because I love him so much (ahem), I put off making an appointment for him. In the meantime, I cut his "bangs" so he could see - which made the situation a little better. It was also during this period that Ryann asked me one day if all dogs had feathers. I guess that tells you the state of urgency for a good grooming.

After a weekend of nice weather and a promising forcast for additional good weather, I decided it was time to give in and make an appointment. We were a bit hesitant to go forward with it because he was acting so... uh, Woofy-like this weekend (read: he's a pansy and has seizures and he was acting like a scaredy cat of everything this weekend, which usually means a seizure is coming) - we didn't want to send him over the edge with the grooming session into a full blown seizure.

But yesterday I just couldn't wait any longer. He is shedding now. He can hardly see anything. The hair on top of his head has fallen into a natural part in the middle. He is bringing in lots and lots of mud on his superlong hair. An appointment was made. He is there now and we expect to pick up a completely new dog after lunch. But for your viewing pleasure, here is Woofy before the haircut and I will reveal the after later this afternoon or tomorrow:)

AFTER:

I don't like to complain, but I'm going to have to complain a little bit right now. I'm so unhappy with the haircut. He looks like a complete goof ball / dorkwad. I know that he is anyway, but he looks awful. This is only the second time I've brought him to this groomer (I used to do it myself until my clippers got dull and they cut him up pretty badly without me knowing it), but I don't think I'm bringing him back.

Last time I brought him there, they gave him a "puppy cut" which apparently means cutting his body and legs to a short length and leaving the head and face longer... well that resulted in the mess of a face that you saw in the before photos. So this morning when I dropped him off they said, "Oh my, he's a mess." (thanks - I DO take care of him, but it has been cold lately, DUH). "He's pretty matted, he's gonna have to be shaved." Shaved - thats exactly what I wanted. Shaved. All.over. Not his body shaved and his head trimmed. What the heck??? How in the world could someone cut his hair this way and think it looked okay? When she said shaved, I thought, "Good, none of that puppy cut stuff that he came out with last time." I expected him to be shaved.

And as you can guess, I'm not one of those confrontational people that would be like, "Oh no - he's not coming home looking like that. You take him back there and make his head look like his body or I won't pay you." Nope. I had left the girls in the car (parked right outside the door where I could see them) and was eager to get back in (I never do that, but this place is dirty and smelly - another indication that I should find a new groomer - and I didn't want them running around bothering everyone and inhaling the smoke and hair that is all over the place). So when he finally came out with The Woof, I just wanted to get out of there (read: get out of the stench) and go home. I hardly noticed his goofy haircut.

Now what do I do? Do I sedate him (yes, I said it) and try to cut his hair with a cutting shears? Do I bring him back to the stinky place and ask them to fix it (not happening...) or do I leave him like this until May? Something needs to be done. It is spring. The squirrels are coming out and they are going to make fun of him. Oh yes, they will.

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Oh you know I couldn't just let him stay goofy looking like that, didn't you? I couldn't stand it. I got the shears out and fixed him:)

Other than the ears, this is how I like my Woofy to look. And I left the tuft of hair on top on purpose. He has a white spot up there that I've always wanted to leave a little longer than the rest, but was never able to isolate with the clippers. With a shears, though, it was easy. My boy - looks soooo much better!