Dear Diary,

I want to tell you a little more about the appointment I had the other day. Opie, a red mackerel tabby domestic longhair, has been taken to the vet for a groom in the past, but he was too much for them to handle without sedation, so his mom was a bit skeptical about whether or not it could be done. Nevertheless, she made an appointment.

When she arrived, I went through the typical first groom information, determined what groom would be best, explained what that groom entails, etc. Before I even removed Opie from his carrier, I could tell he would be easy to groom. He seemed a bit nervous but other than that, he was rather content.

His groom was just as easy as I had expected. He did growl a bit on the table, but he never actually attempted to do anything. He even allowed me to remove him from his carrier and show his off his groom to his mom upon her return. She was very pleased and almost couldn’t believe that he wasn’t just terrible during his groom.

Then she left. Without making another appointment.

I expect her to call me again, but it would have been nice for her to have pre-booked at least one more appointment. In fact, too few of my clients are scheduling appointments before leaving. The ratio of clients who are pre-booking to those who are not is too low, and I need to do something about that.

Of course, I can look back on my conversation with Opie’s mom and see plenty of opportunities for me to have encouraged her to make an appointment before she left. It’s a shame I didn’t recognize those opportunities while the conversation was actually occurring though. Perhaps, if I think enough about ways to casually incorporate it into the conversation, then I’ll better be able to do so when talking to a client.

I’m making more of an effort than thinking and planning, though. As Danelle suggested during the business lecture at school, I’m now offering a reward to clients who pre-book and keep their appointments. I ordered loyalty cards with space for 5 appointments. If a client schedules and keeps those 5 appointments, on the 5th appointment, they received either $15 off their groom or a free soft paw application.

Again, as Danelle suggested, clients can have a week before or after their pre-scheduled appointment for ‘wiggle room.’ That is, if something happens and they need to change the date, they will remain eligible for the reward if the re-scheduled appointment falls no more than one week before or one week after the pre-scheduled date.

Maybe that will help.

Dear Diary,

After I groomed Harley for Dr. B, I asked Linda for a favor. I had contacted a few local shelters to donate my services to adoptable cats, but no one had returned my calls or emails. Knowing that Animal House Veterinary Clinic does more than its share of volunteer work with local shelters, I asked Linda to put in a good word for me with one of the directors. “Maybe they’ll take my offer more seriously, if she contacts them too,” I figured. More than happy to help, she called two different shelters the very next day to let them know what I had in mind and wanted to do.

This left me with no excuses to not call the shelter. You know how I both procrastinate and despise talking on the phone, so I had been racking my brain for reasons I couldn’t make the call. There were none left though. Linda had done the legwork for me. It was now up to me to make things happens.

Before my appointment this morning, I made a call to the shelter, explaining that Linda had called on my behalf recently and that I had two free appointment slots this afternoon. The director was a very friendly lady and surprisingly easy to talk to, agreeing that cats can love a ‘day at the spa’ just as much as dogs.

As soon as my 9 o’clock left, I headed to pick up Cali, a large calico domestic shorthair who lives at the shelter, and Cindy, a red tabby domestic shorthair with beautiful classic tabby markings. I chatted with the director for a bit before leaving and learned that before becoming the director, she had been managing the cat section of the rescue, as they had a special place in her heart. I knew right away I would enjoy helping her.

Unfortunately, the weather was taking a turn for the worse when I returned with the clean, freshly groomed cats. With the tornado sirens blaring, I had no time to chat or get a reaction to the grooms, but I do plan to return again. There were quite a few cats available for adoption, and I know they could all benefit from a trip to the spa.

Cindy, after her groom. I couldn't get a good picture of Cali.

I initially thought of this experience as primarily a business venture – a way to practice grooming cats, perhaps offer a discounted groom to recently adopted cats, further educate others about the benefits of cat grooming, etc. However, I underestimated the rewarding feeling of potentially helping Cindy find a home and at the very least making her feel beautiful.

Dear Diary,

Like the students at the school, I love celebrating firsts. Today was the first time I groomed a cat for the second time! Soleil, a tiny black domestic longhair, came in for a full coat longhair groom today. If you remember, her mom recently noticed that she might be developing allergies to Soleil. I explained to her what would be causing the allergies and how a groom would help alleviate her symptoms.

A few weeks passed after Soleil’s first groom, and I received a call. Sherri wanted to follow up with me and let me know that nothing helped her nightly coughing and sneezing more than Soleil’s bath, but she was starting to cough again, so we scheduled her another appointment.

She brought Soleil in today for a bath and all went well! Soleil is very much a diva and doesn’t like to do what she doesn’t want to do, but her general fussiness was nothing I couldn’t handle, especially since I knew to anticipate her behavior.

When Sherri returned, I had another first. She pre-booked her next appointment! We talked about a schedule, and since Sherri is either only mildly allergic or Soleil does not frequently lick herself, we decided to try five weeks. If that is too long and she begins experiencing symptoms before she returns, we will try four weeks, adjusting the schedule accordingly until it’s just right.

It must seem silly for me to be quite so pleased by these firsts. Here I am excitedly grinning because I groomed the same cat twice and will be grooming her again for a third time in a few weeks. To others, I am just grooming a cat, but to me, these are small steps towards a more grand achievement. These steps are part of my dreams coming to fruition, if I may be so cliché as to refer to this as the beginning of a ‘dream come true.’

Speaking of dreams, all this excitement has me exhausted. I think I could stand for more literal dreaming right about now.

Soleil may hate me, but she loves looking beautiful.

Soleil, after her day at the spa

When I was a young girl, (way too many years ago to confess too), my paternal grandmother showed me how to dye Easter eggs using the old German method her grandmother had shared with her when she was about the same age as I was at the time. 

We went to the produce bins at the grocery store and gathered all of the loose onion skins that had fallen off and were about to be tossed out.  My favorite was the paper-thin skins in various shades of dark purple, but we also gathered the softer yellow and white skins too. 

When we returned home we wrapped about two dozen fresh eggs, uncooked in the onion skins and tied them up with string.  We put them all into a big pot of boiling water and let them boil for about 10 minutes.  The results were always amazing; beautiful marbled eggs!

Well, this year I decided to keep with the tradition of coloring at Easter, but like all CFCG’s I just couldn’t do things either easy, or straight forward!  I was going to utilize my daughter Jenna’s 9-month old kitten as my canvas.   I have to confess, I am under strict orders to keep my little creative hands off of Leonidas.  In fact, I am rarely called upon to groom this beautiful blue-point domestic long-haired feline because Jenna is a CFMG in training and needs no assistance from me. 

Color washing supplies

Preparation is important and prepare I did.  I gathered my supplies: vinegar, food coloring, water, measuring cup and jar.  I almost forgot my rubber gloves but at last minute realized I didn’t want to spend Easter looking like a Swamp Thing.  Color washing with food coloring is a temporary color, but If you’ve dyed eggs with the dye, you know it can stick to skin for a few days.

Green colorwash mixture

I double checked with Kelsie Brown of the National Association of Professional Creative Groomers, LLC on the best method for color washing cat hair.  Kelsie recommended that I use Show Season’s Results Rinse instead of vinegar for more efficiency, and eliminate the possible slight lingering vinegar smell from the final showcase.  Unfortunately, I was out of the rinse and went with the vinegar.  Honestly, it isn’t so bad.

Here is where things began to go wrong, and it’s an important point for any artist to make note of.  Never, never alter or compromise your vision for another’s wishes, for you will invariably find yourself with a body of work that does not reflect you or your dreams.  I allowed my desire to convince Jenna that she enjoyed a little color work on Leonidas to dictate my color choice and I strayed from my vision.  Jenna loves the color green, so I decided to go with that.  When I imagined giving Leo a little color for Easter, I had automatically envisioned him cast in a pastel lavender hue.  But… instead of going with my vision I went with green thinking I would get a positive emotional response  from Jenna and then be able to manipulate her in to letting me try something a little more wild next time.

Leo in the tub enjoying his color rinse

Creatively this was a big mistake.

I ended up with a color washed cat that looked like he had just gone outside and rolled around in the freshly mowed grass!  The process of a food coloring wash worked well but the results were depressingly AWFUL!

Jenna’s response…. “If you had asked me, I’d have told you to use blue or purple.  Anyone would have known green would look ugly”. 

Thank goodness color washing with food dye is temporary!

Leonidas after his successful color washing technique turns him a horrible grass stain green!