So apparently you can teach an old dog, or cat for that matter, a new trick!  Here I am blogging!  Wow!

I must confess that while I am addicted to reading many of the fine blogs currently in existence relating to the grooming industry I’m not exactly sure how to go about being a “blogger” myself.  So I started where I always go when I need guidance, the dictionary.  Webster’s tells me that a blog is “a shared on-line journal where people can post diary entries about their personal experiences and hobbies.”  So ok, I can do that.  I come home every day and tell my poor beleaguered family about my day.  Now I’ll just type it out and tell y’all!

Today was ALL about a four letter word.  Actually it was a four letter word that spawned a few more four letter words!  SNOW!  Way too much of it!  But ya know what?  With the amazing help of my four very able-bodied children, I was able to dig out and get on the road and complete my route as scheduled.  Thank you NJ DOT and local crews.  Thank-you kids!

I don’t keep my truck in my driveway.  I park it down the road at a storage facility, Buxton’s Boxes.  Amazing folk who go out of their way to make sure I am taken care of regardless of the weather conditions.  Today, as a thank-you for clearing the foot of fresh snow that fell overnight away from my truck, I sent a luncheon platter from my favorite local bagel shop. 

Initially hesitant, getting on the road today turned out to be the right call.  Sent all my clients an early morning email to let them know I would try to get to them as scheduled, but to bear with me.  I knew one of my clients was driving to Florida tomorrow and it was imperative that I get Snowball, a beautiful white Persian, groomed as it will be April before she comes back.  Snowball has a very cottony, profuse coat that mats if she goes longer than 8 weeks.  Mission accomplished!  Happy Snowball – happy owner – happy limo driver – because Snowball won’t be throwing up hairballs all the way home!  Oh yes, Snowball is chauffeured to and from Florida!  Did I mention she was a Diva?

But here is the real payoff to going that extra bit today…. I booked three new multi-cat clients!  Yes!  Seems all the folk who are usually at work when I am out and about were stuck home trying to dig out the 8 foot pile of snow from the bottom of their driveway, courtesy of the snowplow, and had the opportunity to see my rolling billboard! 

I had one lady approach me as I was about to scramble up a snow embankment to a client’s driveway, and she wanted to know if the cat on my truck indicated that I could cut a cat’s nails or was it just for show…..  Oh well…. You can imagine her surprise when I smiled and gave her my brochure and an NCGIA pamphlet on the benefits of regular grooming!  By the time I got home today, this owner of two domestic short-hairs and one Maine Coon of questionable origin, had not only peeked at my website, and that of the NCGIA, but called and left a message begging for my first available appointment.  Seems she had always been led to believe that cats cannot be bathed, and as an intelligent woman, she knows her cats are dirty and is excited to finally be able to experience clean cats sleeping on her pillow! 

Amazing what a little education can do….and a lot of snow!

If someone told me that buying a Persian kitten for a pet, way back when, would have turned into traveling the world and writing books, I would have laughed my head off.

It all started with a Red Tabby Persian named Pojo’s Moving Target of Bara.  I bought Target and was invited to a cat show one state away. It was there that I learned, within seconds, that I knew absolutely NOTHING about grooming cats. But then why would I know anything about cat grooming up until that point?  I’d never groomed any animal before setting foot in a show hall.

When I took Target home with me, he came with a couple of lovely, silk rosettes.  I figured he MUST be a great show cat if, at the age of four months, he’d already earned some of those lovely rosettes.

Target, as nice as he was, was not a super stud in the show ring.  But one thing he did do was give me an education!

blow dryer, combs, pin brushes, shampoos, more shampoos, cage curtains, powders, nail trimmers and various other assorted tools = $2138.92

travel and entry fees for one year = $6337.27

piles of beautiful, silk rosettes = $0.00

an education in show grooming a cat = $priceless!

Along the way, I had the wonderful opportunity to show many beautiful Persians.  Some of them went on to win Regional and/or National Awards.  The highlight of my career was during the 2004-2005 show season when I ran two cats simultaneously for Regional and National Wins. The unspoken show rule was “one cookie per customer” but that didn’t deter me.  I had two really nice cats, and I fully intended to show them!

That year I showed a Brown Mac Tabby GC, GP Man-Atzakat’s Call Me Crazy of Bara and a Blue & White Van GC, GP, NW Chantilylace Groucho Marks of Bara, DM at the same time.  Mark was a better cat than Crazy and, most of the time, would place higher in the top 10 finals.  But hardly a final went by where I didn’t have two cats to carry up and two cats with two rosettes to carry back.  At one point, I showed GP Cotn Hill’s Monica of Bara to get her grand points and ended up with three cats in the final!  Considering a judge only pulled up 10 cats for a final, I had 1/3 of the reigning cats in show!  I admit I rather enjoyed showing that year.

The show season ends in April and begins afresh each May.  For most of 2004, Mark sat at #1 in the nation as well as in the Southern Region, where I live.  Crazy ranked 11th in the Southern Region. Things were looking good.  Out of the top 25 in the biggest and most competitive region on the planet, I would have two of the winning cats.  And the #1 cat in the world!

By early spring 2005 the campaigners were out in full force.  The competition was hot.  At nearly every show I went to, Mark had to duke it out with two other fantastic bicolor Persians.  It was head-t0-head, and it was tough!  Especially since the #2 cat, riding our tail, was bred and owned by one of the Southern Region judges who was actively judging shows.  And the #4 cat was bred by another judge and being shown by yet another.  We were doomed and we knew it, but we forged ahead anyway, ever hopeful to keep our top spot.

But then a surprise came along. In March of that year, we were blessed, rather unexpectedly, with another child.  Katie, our youngest, joined our family at the age of 3 1/2 years old.  She was such a surprise and such a blessing to our family.  And she needed, more than anything, a momma.  Mark, Crazy, and I let go of our silk ribbons and took hold of a little girl.

The boys slipped in their rankings.  Mark fell to 3rd and earned both a National and Regional award. Later that year he achieved his Distinguished Merit award. Crazy slipped to 28th in the region.  Only the top 25 get a spot of recognition.  No matter.  We know how great he is, with or without an extra title.  Instead of a trophy sitting on the mantle, getting dusty with time, Crazy has a little girl to snuggle with each night as we read bedtime stories, say our prayers, and drift off into dreamland, at the end of another day.

I’m sure we all remember the guy who tried out for American Idol last year that penned the catchy song, “Pants on the Ground.”

In cat terms, “pants” refers to the hair down the rear legs of a cat.  So while fellas may look like fools with their pants on the ground, cats look foolish with their pants all clumpy and separated.

You can really make your cat groom shine by making sure a cat’s pants are full, fluffy, and “falling” without separation.

The Persian breed standard calls for roundness all over.  Ears are to be small and rounded into the head.  The eyes are to be round and open, with a sweet expression. And head should be round with doming on the top head.

In order to achieve this roundness, we must do a little trimming and sculpting.  Otherwise a Persian will become overgrown and wolfie looking – a wild, natural look that is more in keeping with the Maine Coon but certainly not the Persian.

To give you an idea………..

Please note that the Himalayan and the Exotic both share the same face/head standard as the Persian.

I’m not sure what or where “tarnation” is or how that saying even came about.  But when I hear people say that cats don’t need baths and they can just “get by” with a spritz and a brush out, I want to scream, “WHAT IN TARNATION?”

How is it that the grooming industry allows this?

I wonder how many professional dog groomers would find it acceptable to spritz an Old English Sheepdog with a spray bottle filled with rinse-less shampoo, then run a brush through its coat before sending it out the door? Or how about a Poodle?  What would it look like if it left the salon after nothing but a wipe down with a warm, wet cloth?

If we compare cats and dogs, the Standard Poodles and the Old English Sheepdogs would be the canine equivalents to the Persian in the feline world.  And my question is this: why does the feline get substandard care?  Why doesn’t the Persian or the Himalayan or the Ragdoll or the Maine Coon get a full bath and blow dry to remove all the debris and junk built up in the coat and creating a nasty mess?

If cats are greasy (which they are) and they naturally shed (which they do), then letting them go without a degreasing bath and thorough blow dry is a recipe for mats and subsequent pelting.  Because I care about what a cat looks like, what it feels like, and what is best for its overall health and condition, I always include a bath and blow dry with every cat groom.  To do anything less would be a huge disservice to my customers, the cats, and to my own reputation as a professional cat groomer.

If a customer balks at the bath and blow dry idea (which they do from time to time), it is my duty and my opportunity to educate them on the causes of the bad condition their cat is currently in and offer them REAL and substantive solutions that will truly make a difference.  Again, to do anything less would be a huge disservice to my customers, their cats, and to my own reputation as a professional cat groomer.  It is my responsibility to know this stuff, to be able to effectively communicate it, and then to change the course of things for the betterment of the cat.

In the end I have a happy customer, a happy cat, and a thriving business.  It is that simple.  But how does it start?

It starts by educating yourself.  And then from there you do whatever you can to make sure you are producing the absolute best grooms possible.  Ever.  Do not settle for anything less when it comes to cats.  Don’t let anyone tell you that it’s okay to settle for less.  Strive for perfection.  And when you reach it, strive to do even more.  We are not “just groomers” folks!  We are so much more!

I groomed 4 new Persians today – new to me anyway.  I’d never seen them before.  The owner, a very kind gentleman, had been dissatisfied by his previous grooming experience.  Things were left undone and incomplete.  The cats were a mess. They were all in full coat and loaded with mats.

I snapped some photos before, during and after some of the grooms just to show what we did.  I apologize for the quality of the photos, but I didn’t have my good camera with me today.  I really wished I had.

So when it comes to check out time, what do you do?  How do you get those clients back in before 6 weeks is up?  Well, first of all, you’ve got to win their trust by knowing what you’re talking about.  Be the expert.  And then WOW them with the results. Give them results far beyond their expectations and far better than what they can get anywhere else.  And then offer solutions for future management.  Their cat’s well-being may depend upon you doing just that.

If you continue turning out fantastic grooms AND educating the cat owners, you will find it so much easier to rebook them for future grooms.  No matter what season it is, you have services to offer.  Full services at regular prices.  Why?  Because the cats need it and you’ve already proven that.

Again, I apologize for the lack of quality photos.  But I really thought these particular cats were good examples of what we run into out there on a daily basis.

Happy Cat Grooming!

If you want to break into our cat grooming school one night and steal stuff, you should go for the big bin of dirty cat hair.  It is our most valuable possession. Considering that it is usually full and the contents is worth $113 per lb, we would be pretty upset if you ran away with our dirty hair bin in the night.  We’d call the cops.

And then we’d have to explain WHY we called the cops to report a stolen bin of nasty cat hair.  We might sound a bit off our rocker.

Of course, if you aren’t a CFMG, the hair would be of no use to you really.  It would be to you exactly what the police would think it was: trash.  Maybe you could use it to soak up some oil somewhere.  Or just throw it away and keep the bin.

Dirty Hair Project. Get in on it!

Just think of all those dirty cats running around this world with stinky, clumpy, greasy, matted hair
that is worth more per pound than just about anything else you own.

We all know drugs are bad news for the humane race.  But what about the felines of this world? Should a cat be given a sedative before it is groomed?  I believe that, for most cats, the answer is a definitive “no!”

In my experience, many of the cats that are believed to be so aggressive that they need drugs to be handled, are truly not as bad as everyone thinks.  In the beginning, when I first started grooming cats for pet owners, I made it a point to try to groom every cat without the aid of drugs or sedatives of any kind. I also wanted to do my best to avoid calling a client, after they had dropped off their cat, to tell them that I couldn’t complete the groom.  Because of this, I learned very quickly to assess a cat’s temperament as soon as it came into my salon.  I needed to know what I was up against and what needed to be done BEFORE the owner left the premises.

I can’t tell you how many times I’ve heard a client say, “My cat needs to be sedated in order to be groomed.”  Or something similar to that.  How do they know this?  Well, usually it is either because the client has tried some “home” grooming that turned out differently than expected or it is because another groomer (or multiple groomers) has told them this is so. Of the thousands of cats I have groomed over the past 12 years, I can count less than 10 that I think truly need some form of “happy pill” prior to being treated to a day at the spa.  Ten out of thousands and thousands.  A pretty small percentage.

So this morning, when a gentleman shows up at the school with his white DLH, Charlie, in tow and hands me a bottle of pills, I figured the odds are in my favor that ol’ Charlie doesn’t need anything but a bit of confidence and deft handling skills on the part of his groomer.  He definitely needs a degreasing bath and some serious de-matting work.  That much is evident upon my initial assessment.  And seeing how Charlie reacts to me when I first check him out, I’m betting that he’ll be more grateful than he will be angry when the whole thing is over and done with.

I politely decline the drugs that Charlie’s “dad” offers to me.  I explain to him that we do not sedate cats at our school.  He tells me we will be sorry if Charlie is not sedated. I smile and offer him reassurance that he has nothing to worry about. And then I haul all 28 lbs of Charlie upstairs and hand him to one of our fabulous students.

About an hour and a half later, Charlie is clean, thoroughly de-matted and sporting a nice, tight sanitary clip and full belly shave.  His hair is fluffed and full, his ears are cleaned, his nails are trimmed, and he’s basking in the spot of sunlight coming through the window and reflecting off the stainless steel grooming table.

As Charlie gets his final comb out, he can’t decide if Gaye, his new groomer, is his BFF or he should be ticked off that he was made to do something that wasn’t of his choosing.  Before Charlie can figure out which way to play it, I pop him back into his carrier and send him downstairs to await his “dad’s” arrival, drug free, clean, and looking mighty fine!

Charlie - he said "no" to drugs. Good boy, Charlie.

He won't admit it, but he knows he looks good.

After the demo, Monica retreats to the windowsill to show of her new hair cut to passersby.  Don’t let her fool you…..she loves the attention!

GP Cotn Hill's Monica of Bara

Class always begins on a Monday at 8:30 am.  Students start out the day with lectures on the basics of building a successful cat grooming business and then move on to a class on cat breeds, colors, and breed standards.

On Day 2 we start out with learning the different feline temperaments and how to identify and handle each one. Then we cover feline health issues.

It is important to know about these things, to be able to identify  symptoms of viruses, diseases, and other common health-related issues specific to cats. And it is important to know how these things are

First she hides in a basket under a grooming table, acting as if she hopes I won't be able to find her.

spread and how they are contained.  It can ruin a grooming business to have some virus or disease wipe out their clients.  It is also important for groomers to understand common health issues so they can better recognize potential problems early on and let the owners know to seek veterinary care right away.  This can save an animal’s life.  I know this because I have lived it personally myself many times over.  We are the EYES in the field for our DVM friends.  I take this seriously.  And I believe any certified groomer at the NCGIA should too.  So on Day 2 we cover feline health issues.

To wrap up day 2, we go over some specific aspects of business management, pricing structures, marketing a cat grooming business and other related topics.

On day 3, the morning starts off with an American Red Cross animal CPR and first aid course, complete with certification training and testing.  And after that, the fun begins!

By this time, cats are lined up along the hallway, safely tucked into their carriers and awaiting their turn on the grooming table.  Some are quietly waiting.  Others are more vocal.  Some are down right nasty.  No worries though.  This is real life grooming for serious cat groomers.  We don’t mess around.

But before we get to the cats lined up in the hallway, I get the privilege of gathering all the students around my grooming table and demonstrating a variety of holding techniques as well as grooming techniques on one of my own cats.  Usually Monica, my red tabby and white, is the chosen model.  She plays her role well.  Even though she is secretly a fairly compliant cat, she will often throw in a little drama of some kind to make the students think otherwise.  Monica is only trying to make my grooming look totally impressive.  I will give her extra treats afterward, when everyone is gone.  She is a good actress and does her job well.

Here I am demonstrating an interesting phenomenon about how cat hair grows. Despite what my critics say about my observation (and it's only an observation), I know I am right about this and can prove it. Here I am doing just that.

Once Monica is done, we move on to the “real” cats.  What we get, is what we get, be it mean, nasty, matted, stinky, flea infested, or sporting dried poo balls on the behind.  Real life cat grooming.  What fun!

Here are some photos of Monica doing her thing on day 3.
(photos courtesy of Juli Anderson, CFMG, CFCG, Certifier/Instructor of the NCGIA)

Low and behold! Look what we found under that 6 weeks of hair growth! It appears Monica still has some of her creative design under all of that new growth! At the tips her hair was totally white.

Demonstration of the lion cut. Here I am showing improper clipper technique vs. proper technique. Doing it the wrong way is ineffective at best, and can be dangerous. And yes, you can most certainly shave a cat in reverse with a #10 blade. The hair will grow back, I promise. Monica here has been shaved in this manner more times than I can count. And look at the hair on the table - hair that grew back fluffy and full after her previous lion cut only 6 weeks before this one. Don't believe everything you hear about cat grooming. There's an awful lot of junk out there.