Posted by Dani in 
At the NCGIA we have fun with cat grooming! And why not? If you’re gonna risk life and limb taking a pair of clippers to a cat, why not make it worth your while?
This past weekend I had the pleasure of conducting the first ever creative cat grooming lecture series…..at least as far as I know. I’ve never heard of anyone doing a creative cat lecture before. I did a two-part series at the Chicago All American Grooming Show with the first part including the application of semi-permanent color. Immediately after the first lecture I rushed my wonderful cat, Monica, off to the mobile grooming unit for a quick bath and blow-dry and then returned later that afternoon to demonstrate carving out the design with clippers and putting on the final touches.
Fortunately for me the design turned out just as I had hoped. One thing I’ve learned with creative grooming is that you have to be flexible. Very flexible. And when you do it live in front of a crowd, you have to be flexible while looking like you know exactly what you are doing. No matter what the outcome you’ve got to make it look like it was all part of your master plan. I got lucky this time and my master plan unfolded pretty much how I had hoped. Whew!
If you missed it and want to see for yourself how Monica got her fancy little flower garden, you can sign up for the free trial of Learn2Groomcats.com (it will take you to Learn2GroomDogs.com – same site, different name, only because we like cats better. hehe). Both parts of the lecture/demo were taped and are available online through Learn2Groom.
As if that weren’t enough fancy cat hair buzzing for one weekend, I decided to make sure their was a cat walking the Abstract Runway again this year. I wasn’t planning on doing the runway. I can’t compete and had enough to do already. It just seemed like extra work without any real benefits. But what I hadn’t figured on was the fact that attendees really WANTED to see a cat on the Runway.
While drying Monica Saturday morning, I was approached several times by people asking if we were going to be in the Runway again. ”No,” I said, “Not this year.” Sad faces and disappointment ensued. Well, how could I let everyone down? Fortunately I brought another cat with me who just happened to be suitable for a creative design. And, as luck would have it, I had a semi-nice outfit I could put together (minus the shoes – but, as it turned out, barefoot worked out just fine for the occasion.)
I patterned C2′s design after the design in my shirt, only doing an inverse version with the colors. We located a piece of silver ribbon somewhere amongst our gear and fashioned a makeshift harness/leash for her and VIOLA! An Abstract Runway entry ready to walk in the spotlight.
I’m thankful to have some wonderful cats to work with. My girls are very special to me and trust me enough to do anything I ask of them while executing everything to absolute purr-fection. I couldn’t do any of this without them!
