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!

Just when I thought my life couldn’t get any better… Wahl introduces the Brav Mini trimmer in jewel tones to compliment the recently released new colored Bravura clippers.  Of course, I picked one up to match my Lavender Bravura while I was at Intergroom. 

I can’t wait to test clip this little trimmer on cat hair.  Something this beautiful must create beauty… So far I am struck by how quiet and vibration free it appears to run.  It even feels lighter in my hand than the Wahl Pro LT trimmer that I am crazy about.    

Stay tuned for upcoming reviews as I utilize the Brav Mini as part of my upcoming project to turn my recently rescued Flame Lynx Point Himalayan Lucifer into a cooperative creative groom model!

Brav Mini stands by Bravura Clipper

I am a cat groomer.  My tool kit consists of a number of clippers, various trimmers, nail clippers, a few combs and a pair of 4 inch scissors that have balled tips.  Yet, I find I have a confession to make… I purchased 5 new pairs of Geib Katana Cobalt Shears at Intergroom!

I couldn’t help myself!  I can’t even tell you how I found myself in a position to have Ed Geib lay a pair of shears in my hand, but what I can tell you is that from that moment it was too late!  It wasn’t a matter of if I would purchase shears but how many pair!  Somehow I settled on 5 pair that Ed carefully laid into a pair of beautifully crafted yellow leather cases that actually had room for 6 pair.

It is NOT my fault that I came home with 6 pair!  Blame that on Danelle, while I thank her!  Dear Danelle was so worried that I’d be filled with regret every time I looked at the open slot when I got home that she purchased a pair of curves for me! 

My new Katanas!

Every time I run my hands over the leather case I start to tremble.  I keep hearing The Black Keys “Howlin’ For You” running through my head.

“Alright

Yeah

Well now

I must admit
I can’t explain
Any of these thoughts
Racing through my brain
Its true
Baby I’m howlin’ for you

Alright “

I’m howlin’ for my new Katana!!! They are effortless to work with and feel like a natural extension of my hand. 

Thank goodness I have 5 dogs of my own that still need groomed, and a few very special dog clients that I still care for!

YAWN!  Back from Secaucus!  Glad to be back in my little neck of New Jersey amongst the horse farms and seriously less traffic.  North Jersey is as foreign to me as it is to Miss Monica!

Intergroom 2011 was interesting.  I’m not a fan of the new days or hours, especially the later nights!  Foot traffic defiantly felt lighter over the course of all three days of the Trade Show.  The biggest difference that Danelle and I experienced at the NCGIA booth happened to be a positive one.   While the numbers of groomers attending appeared to be down, the number of folk who knew who we were or had heard of the school was well up.  In fact, more than ever before, we had the pleasure of folks bustling up breathless to the booth and exclaiming, “Oh good, you are here!  I came to the show just to find you.”   

6 months ago at Hershey we were still introducing the concept of a cat exclusive grooming school and receiving a variety of reactions, even though the school had been operating successfully since its inception 6 months before that.  Fast forward 6 months to Intergroom, and we are selling more curriculum related material and signing up students for the limited openings still available for the 2011 school year than Air Muzzles!

One of the most rewarding experiences for me was when Michael Penn, my former instructor from The Nash Academy of Animal Arts, came over to show us the face trim he had given his own cat the night before, all because he had picked up, “Here Kitty, Kitty” from me earlier in the day.  Michael glowed with pleasure and enthusiasm because the simplicity of the face trim technique had inspired him so.  I really can’t put into words the thrill it gave me to think, maybe, just maybe I was able to give a little back to Michael for all the love, support and guidance he so freely gave me while I was a bumbling student at Nash. 

And yes, it was a beautifully done face trim on a gorgeous cat!

Day 2 of Intergroom begins.  Another early start but this time we need to get things together for the 1^st of 2 seminar’s Danelle is presenting on Creative Cat Grooming.  I haven’t even put my shoes on and my feet hurt already! 

Think attendance may have been down for opening day at Intergroom, but still met some very interesting people who are excited about cat grooming.  Gotta give a shout out to Brian Williams who blew me away with his enthusiasm and quick grasp of new found knowledge on Breeds and Colors!  Give those two Calicos of yours a big hug from me.  I can’t wait to see you in SC shortly at the school.  It’s a decision you’ll never regret and I know already you are going to blow us all away with your talent and knack for cat grooming.  All you need is someone to let the cat in you out of the bag!

To Sheri Harvey and Ellen Sachs Ehrlich, I love getting to spend time with you (and sampling Mr. Ehrlich’s Crack!)  We have our own Elite Club going on!  New Jersey’s only CFMG’s – and we are all mobile!  Keep up the great work girls – I believe in you… and the cats NEED you!

Morning has broken and you can feel the energy in the air!  It’s like Christmas Time in April for New Jersey Groomers – only it’s called INTERGROOM! 

What a morning it’s been already; breakfast by 7:00 am at the hotel, then a hot shower and then a flurry of activity as I decide what to wear out of my suitcase.  Today is going to be a long day.  The tradeshow opens at 11:00 am and then runs until 8:00 pm.  I needed to find something that was professional but comfortable.  The problem is, I am notorious for never packing until the last minute and never knowing what I really want to take.  Over the years, I’ve just not gotten any better at it, but luckily today I found I had packed exactly what I was looking for.

 I had an early start today because while the tradeshow opens at 11:00 am, the first classroom sessions start at 9:30 am, and I have brought my oldest son, AJ with me so that he can attend some of the seminars.  Over the last few months AJ has been riding along with me and has awakened an itch he is interested in exploring; the wonderful world of grooming! 

AJ’s all settled into his first seminar and I had a quick dance around the tradeshow hall as last minute preparations were completed.  Things are already beginning to liven up and the contest ring floor is already covered in clippings from the Terrier class. 

I’m excited to get started and have the opportunity to share my passion of cat grooming with all interested visitors to the NCGIA booth!

Time for INTERGROOM!  It’s the tradeshow right in my own home state, all my favorite groomers always attend, and it’s the show where I had a life enhancing experience!

Today, Danelle arrived from South Carolina around noon at Newark Airport with my favorite little SC Persian, Monica, peeking out of her shoulder bag.   It was so good to see these two Southern Belles again!  What should have been a quick drive from Newark Airport to Secaucus to the Convention Center took a little longer as I was too busy talking to pay attention to the driving!  Imagine that – me talking too much!

Set up of the NCGIA booth took minutes but, again, we took longer because Danelle and I had so much to catch up on!  In my defense, I have to say, I’m mobile – so I am alone most of my day!!!  It is rare that I have adult conversation on a Friday afternoon, and nothing beats good company, especially when the topic is Cat Grooming!

Time for a late lunch… and guess what – that ran into the early evening all because we talked more than we chewed!  Seriously, all of the conversation revolved around our favorite share topic of cat grooming and the joys (and pitfalls) of running businesses that revolve around this said activity.  I love this industry, and on the eve of Intergroom 2011, I find myself getting excited for the opening bell tomorrow morning!

It was 3-4 years ago at Intergroom that I had the privilege of hearing Danelle speak for the first time.  I was already on my own personal pilgrimage to learn all I could about cat grooming.  I had bought and read every book ever written on the topic, which isn’t saying much; completed the Nash Academy of Animal Arts online course on Cats and received hands-on experience with the beloved Joey Villani at Nash New Jersey.  I was already grooming cats for clients at the shop I was working at, and thought I was a competent groomer, but I just had too many unanswered questions because I knew there had to be a better way.  So imagine my excitement when my Intergroom catalog announced that some lady was going to do an all-day seminar series on cat grooming. Whoo-hoo!  Although, I was also very skeptical, sometimes the title is more exciting than the seminar….

Danelle German speaking at an all-day cat grooming seminar, Intergroom 2009.

To say I underestimated the extent of “a better way” is likely an understatement.   I sat in the back row of the first seminar, and by the end of the day during seminar 4, I was in the front row hanging on every word Danelle said.  I still have my composition book from that weekend at Intergroom filled with all my notes.  I have 30 complete pages from the 4 seminars on cat grooming alone!  I went back to work the next day with a new confidence, and happened to have a schedule full of cats.  From that brief glimpse into cat grooming by a true cat groomer I immediately saw a significant improvement in my own grooms, the level of positive experience for both the cats and me, and my ability to successfully pre-book my clients.  I was hooked, and the rest is history!

Danelle giving a live cat grooming demo at Intergroom 2009.

Here’s to all the groomers planning on attending this year’s event!  May you all have a wonderful time and come away with not only a memorable weekend, but one filled with shared knowledge exchanges that impact you in wondrous ways!

Don’t forget to stop by the NCGIA booth and say hello to Danelle, Monica and myself!

I did it.  I finally capitulated and made the decision to stop accepting new canine clients.  I’m taking the next step on my eventual goal of feline exclusive grooming!

Gotta say, I’m a flurry of emotion.  I love my canine clients and enjoy my time spent with them. I’m a competent dog stylist and love turning out a well coiffed pooch, but nothing makes me prouder than returning a beautiful show groom on a family cat to his owner.  There is just something about clean cat hair that just intoxicates me!

And dirty cat hair in a box marked “Dirty Hair Project” and ready to be mailed isn’t so bad either!

On the first day of each new school session at the National Cat Groomer’s Institute, students analyze a series of slides in an attempt to identify the different breeds and colors pictured.  If you’ve been lucky enough to attend some of Danelle’s tradeshow seminars, it’s likely that you will have seen a variation of this lecture.  Nothing separates the big cats from the little kitties than breed & color identification!

One of the biggest challenges for many students at the NCGIA is passing the written exam for Breeds and Colors.  Before attending the school, we recommend that all prospective students review the study packets, so that we can answer any specific concerns a student may have.  I also highly recommend purchasing the Breeds & Colors Flashcards.  This wonderful study tool was not released until after I acquired my CFMG, and what I would have done to have such a marvelous way to learn!   Beats trying to draw my own…

Danelle recently posted photographs of a delightful humane society cat that caused a stir at the school.  The class spent the end of the day, with the breed flashcards spread out in an attempt to find the various breed characteristics within this little mystery.  While this particular make-up was rather unusual, many of the cats we see in our salons are also a result of indiscriminate breeding rather than a controlled program.  The results can be very interesting.

Additionally, sometimes nature throws us a color curve ball.  Maybe in celebration of the start of Spring Training, I had such a curve ball this week.  As I often do, I had the pleasure of grooming a cat for a local shelter.  The volunteer foster mom told me that the cat was a large, long-haired, orange, stripped male.  Translating, I expected to get to meet a male, domestic long-haired, red mackerel-tabby.

“Bumper” was hiding under the bed when I arrived.  A quick peek beneath the dust ruffle appeared to confirm that I WAS going to groom a beautiful DLH Red Mac-Tabby.  He was a little shy and took some coaxing to lure out.   I saw it immediately!  There was a small patched area on the back of the head and on the right ear.

“Bumper” was actually a DLH Red Patched Tabby!  The gene that results in color patching is sex-linked and requires two X chromosomes.   Two X chromosomes results in a female.  It turns out “Bumper” has some chromosomal abnormality going on and is a hermaphrodite, commonly known in the industry as a “Shim.”  Typically a male having XXY chromosomes is almost always sterile, although there are reports of neutered males giving birth to a healthy litter of kittens!  Hermaphrodite cats make perfectly beautiful pets and are as just as likely to be loving, gentle and affectionate as the next cat.

Two weeks ago I was experiencing a long stretch on the road.  My despair with four letter words expanded to include a few three letter words such as ice and icy! 

I have a surcharge schedule that includes a $10.00 glove up-charge.  It’s simple, if your pet is excessively filthy or unsanitary and I need to break out the gloves – you get a $10.00 up-charge.  I’m about to update that surcharge schedule to include a $50.00 ice-skate fee.  If your drive-way or the access point to your home is so icy that I need ice-skates – you get up-charged! 

Sometimes being a mobile groomer is so much more than I ever bargained for.  The rewards are greater and the experiences far exceed anything I could have imagined.  To paraphrase an inspirational quote, it’s in the quiet moments that we hear God’s whispers, and on that Wednesday, stopped at a red light on my way to the next appointment, I had such a moment.

New Jersey was still waking up from a terrible winter storm the night before that left the region glazed in ice.  As I sat at that red light grumbling away, I glanced at the field on my right and saw how it sparkled in the dim light like a thousand little flattened diamonds.  The two or three old oak trees on the horizon appeared to be sculpted from ice and standing strong, determined to remain stead-fast.  I took a deep breath.  In that moment the scene laid before my eyes exemplified peace and the quiet strength of God’s creations.

Simultaneously, it struck me that this overwhelming sense of beauty was in direct contrast with the stress I had been experiencing only moments earlier because of the difficult driving conditions this same ice and snow was causing.    Obviously it’s all in how you look at things.  I thought of other words that I could use to describe the scene.  Barren, dead, frozen, tundra and wasteland easily came to mind.

I remembered that in February 1996 I was home visiting my Granny in Argyllshire, Scotland and we took a drive one afternoon along Loch Striven.  It was a day that can only best be described with a Scottish word – “dreich”, but somehow I found beauty in that day that left a lasting impression that even now I can close my eyes and be transported back to.  My Gran thought I was daft marveling away at the Alder and Ash covered in green moss and small ferns.  To me, they looked like fine gentleman dressed in their best green velvet coats with lace cuffs and collars, clinging with all the elegance they could muster to the edges of the loch on that February day.  

This morning I got an email containing some devastating news from a client.  Their beautiful 11 year old Red Mac-Tabby DSH, named Frankie was just diagnosed with advanced stage abdominal cancer.  Nothing can be done medically at this point for this beautiful feline.  Frankie is what some would call a Hemmingway cat, a polydactyl with 7 toes on each paw.  He has some of the most beautiful tabby markings I have seen.  It’s as if they were painted on with a fine hand and a subtle eye for detail in the shadings of the red. 

I just spent time with Frankie and his housemates, Peeps and Boots last week, putting nail caps on the trio in Valentine colors.  “Mom & Dad” have recently updated the living-room furniture with new swanky leather and wanted to make sure it continues to look new without excluding the cats from the room.  The news this morning saddened me, and I’m “just” the groomer.  Norah and Bob’s pain must be overwhelming, but as I reread their email, I find myself touched at the eloquence and unbridled love contained in their announcement.

Frankie, you are in my prayers and blessings.