Every now and then I get calls from a new customer asking if I can fix the groom that they recently had done at another groomer’s.  I will admit I do enjoy these types of calls.

Saturday we had two such customers.  This one was “groomed” only 3 days earlier.  Not only is the cat covered in grease, but its entire chest area is matted to the skin.  It leaves one wondering what, exactly, a groomer is doing to these cats if they are not at least getting the mats out.

It truly is a shame that this guy had to go through two grooms in one week to take care of a problem that should have been eliminated the first time around. At least the owner was persistent enough to pursue further services.  She told me she just KNEW her cat could look better than that.

No more grease. No more mats. ahhhhh!

Three weeks from today, we will be in the middle of all the amazing events that take place at the Hershey Groom Expo.  It seems September has crept up on me, all of a sudden, and is now just around the corner.

I am rather excited about going this year.  Truthfully, I am always excited about Hershey, but this year we have so many new products to offer that there is now an extra sense of anticipation wrapped up in the usual hype.

We will be doing several cat grooming demos in our booth this year.  I’ll also be doing the usual demos in the Wahl booth, as I have done in years past.  So please, stop by and check out the ‘before’ kitties and then watch as we transform them into beautiful, clean kitties right there in the booth.

Please introduce yourselves to us when you stop by.  Many of you we already know and have had the pleasure of working with in the past.  But many of you are new to us. We’d love to put a face with the name.

See you soon!

The Chicago All-American hosted the first ever Abstract Creative Runway competition.  I “participated” with a cat.  I say “participated” because I was ineligible for competition because show rules state that speakers cannot compete.  But I find it hard to pass up on an opportunity to walk a runway with a kitty in tow

C2, my solid white Persian, was crafted into a black and white design and did a great job hanging with the big dogs and working the stage on Saturday night of the show.  I am proud of her.

The rules called for some sort of abstract design with little or no color.  The design had to be something that could be done in a day at the salon and something that customers would like done on their dog or cat.  No props were to be used.

Photo shoot after the Runway Competition

C2's abstract design

Some other entries

Being interviewed by Huber

I showed cats for many years.  This required a great deal of travel as well as upkeep of the cats in between shows.  But it was fun and I had the joy of bringing home a bunch of beautiful (yet worthless) silk ribbons over the years. Eventually so many piled up that I gave them away to children that visited my shop.  They thought they were cool.  I thought they were dust collectors.

In May of 2005 I finished up the year with a National Win (3rd Best) with my cat Groucho Marks and almost a Regional Win with my cat Call Me Crazy (I stopped showing 2 months before the show season for the arrival of our 5th child). Crazy missed his RW by a point margin that could have easily been obtained in a single show.  I was weary by year’s end and saw enough cat fancy politics to make me just a bit jaded about the whole showing thing.

I did not show again after that. Five kids and a growing cat grooming business kept me busy enough.  Besides, I figured there was really nowhere to go after a 3rd Best National Win other than down.  The old adage “quite while you’re ahead” seemed like a good thing to adhere to.  So that was that.

Until now………

You see, the German fam was in the mood for a Persian kitten running around the house again. After all, the current cats were getting on up in age and are not quite as playful as they once were.  I put in an order with some friends of mine that breed some beautiful Persians with great dispositions.  It took awhile for them to produce just the right kitten to fit my very specific criteria.  But alas, Fanci FX 2 Sexy of Bara joined the family and reminded us all what it was like to have a toddler running about.  We wanted to call him Sexy but my 11 year old thought that was simply gross and would not say the actually word “s-e-x-y”. So we named him 2Se for short.

It was important to me that 2Se be granded as an adult so I promised the breeders that I would make a concerted effort to obtain his Grand Champion title.  This, of course, meant that I was out of retirement and back in the showring.

Four and one half years after I officially retired from showing cats, I stepped back into the ring.  I took Crazy along, too, just for the heck of it.  I wanted to see if the old boy still had it in him.  And he did.

2Se picked up 30 grand points his first time out at 9 months of age (8 months is considered adult in CFA). Since 75 are needed to grand in Premiership, he is nearly half way there after only 1 show.  Crazy even managed to pull a few breed ribbons over another GP who is campaigning for a big win this year.  And he slid into a final along the way, which simply means that we have more beautiful (yet worthless) silk ribbons collecting dust in the shop.  Ah, but we had fun!

Fanci FX 2 Sexy of Bara & GC, GP Man-atzakat's Call Me Crazy of Bara

One of our Certified Members, Adrienne Kawamura, owns and operates a feline-exclusive salon in Seattle, WA area.  She has recently franchised her business, City Kitty, and is offering franchise opportunities to those wishing to own their own feline salon.  You can view her website and make contact with Adrienne at www.citykittygrooming.com

What a weekend!  The Chicago All-American was a smashing success.  Lindsay and I were extremely busy at the booth as it seems the folks in Illinois are especially excited about cat grooming.  We really love those Chicagoans!

The Ultimate Cat Groomer Encyclopedia was a big hit as were the Breed and Color Flashcards.

The reason I entitled this “A Tale of Two Cities” is because I got stuck in Chicago for another day while wanting desperately to be back home in Greenville with my family. Lindsay and I were scheduled to leave at 7pm Sunday, right after the show. But some nasty weather hit Chicago and delayed or cancelled many flights.  Lindsay made it as far as Detroit, where she got picked up by her dad.  I ended up staying in Chicago for a whole other day until I finally arrived back home in Greenville last night.  We are both beat!

Despite the travel issues, however, both of us enjoyed the show greatly.  The seminars went well, the booth was busy, and we enjoyed talking to so many people.  The Abstract Runway went off without a hitch. I participated with my white Persian, C2.  She did a fantastic job and was such a hit.  I’ll post some pictures soon that Lindsay took.

It is good to be home.  For those waiting on their orders, everything but the book and the posters will be shipped out this week.

We are pleased to say that the NCGIA has grown so much since its inception in May 2007.  We needed a new website to help meet the demands of this growth.

We are excited to have our new site now up and running at last! Please take some time to check out the new features, including an Events Calendar as well as an ever-growing store of great products intended to help you grow your cat grooming business.

We have had so many requests for new products and learning tools and are pleased to tell you that several of those new additions are now available. We have more on the way soon!!

So please keep checking back for updated calendar information and new products.

If you are a member, please take a moment to add your listing to the state/country member listing. It will only take a moment to add your information.  You will not be listed on the site unless you submit the required form. Click HERE to submit.

If you have changes to your information in the future, such as a new contact email or phone number, submit another form for the changes to go into effect.

Thanks to you all for being a part of this wonderful organization!!

Danelle German, CFMG, CFCG
President, National Cat Groomers Institute of America, Inc.