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!

I need your help!  I’m planning out future lecture topics and would love to hear from you all. Tell me what you’d like to hear about most of all (no dog topics please – I know nothing).

So……….

Email danelle@nationalcatgroomers.com with your ideas on future topics.

I want to say a big “Thank You!” to Christine DeFilippo for hosting the Feline Fantasy Creative Cat Groom competition at Intergroom in April.  What a great thing for us cat groomers!  Finally a little time in the ring for the felines.

I had the pleasure of judging this event which meant I didn’t get a chance to take pictures.  Once the final photos of the winners are out I’ll see if I can’t get my hands on some to post here. But for now, let me just say that it was neat to see what the competitors did to their fancy felines.  I was impressed!

I was also pleased to see a couple of our NCGIA members in the mix of competitors.  Keep it up, guys. There will be more cat competitions in the future. I promise!

I just recently returned from the NDGAA Fun in the Sun show in Orlando, FL.  It was my first time attending the show. Last year I sent Lindsay down to man the booth and many folks remembered her being there last year.

I did a 1 1/2 hour cat grooming lecture which was entirely too short.  (Are you reading this, Jeff?)  There is simply too much cat stuff to talk about that it takes way more than 90 minutes.  When you combine a creative cat groom with the lecture, it makes for a seminar that runs over time and makes the show host and seminar attendant come in and give “CUT IT!” signals to the verbose speaker.

Anyway, it was a great show and the interest in cat grooming was overwhelming.  The folks there were particularly interested in our forthcoming cat grooming school.  I think Floridians and Chicagoans are my kind of people:  cat crazy!

The best part of the weekend was the Halloween Party on Saturday night. My hubby went with me (it was my birthday weekend so we spent some time at the coast on the way down) and we dressed as pirates.  We were in the top 3 for the group costume contest and then I made the top 4 for the individual costume contest.

That wraps up the shows for me for the rest of 2009.  What an awesome year!!

Meet Crazy and Trustin.  GC, GP Manazakat’s Call Me Crazy of Bara is my kitty.  Grandpointed PR Cotnhill’s Trustin belongs to Lindsay.

The two boys had never met before the Hershey show.

But as you can clearly see, they became instant close friends. Almost too close, really.  Passersby always marvel at how well they sit on the table all weekend, unbothered by the noise, the commotion, the dog, the people……..but Lindz and I were amazed at how well they buddied up to each other and lay there side by side, so picture purrfect in every way.

I have concluded that this is what happens when cat whisperer’s get their hands on any cats…..they turn them into pussies.

We survived another year at Hershey Groom Expo, the USA’s largest grooming tradeshow ever.  Being surrounded by chocolate is never a bad thing.  And being in the middle of the all the hubbub of the grooming industry is never bad either, especially when you are working hard to make some changes in the grooming industry.

My first foray into the tradeshow arena was Hershey Groom Expo 2006.  I was minding my own business, happily grooming cats in little Simpsonville, SC when one day a Groomer To Groomer magazine arrived in my mailbox.  Low and behold, a grooming magazine!  Who would have thought?  It was August 2006 and Barkleigh was heavy into promoting the upcoming Groom Expo.  Not only was I amazed that there was actually a magazine for groomers, but that there was a tradeshow to go along with it. Little did I know that was only tip of the iceberg.

At the last minute I packed up my vehicle and headed north to PA, thinking I’d visit my first ever tradeshow and stockpile some nifty cat grooming products and tools.  After all, while I had been very active in the cat showing world, I was oblivious to the grooming world and figured they just had to have some new things I had not yet tried.  Being the type of person that is always in pursuit of newer and better, imagine my dismay when I discovered that in all that big huge trade showhall at Hershey Lodge nothing “cat” could be found. It was all dog.  Dog this, dog that, and more dog that.  I was ticked.  I was offended.  What bias, I thought. What gall!

Well, things always happen for a reason.  Fast forward a year later……Hershey Groom Expo 2007. My first industry speaking gig, and the first debut of the NCGIA.  It took a lot of work and a lot of talking, but here we are now, the world’s first and foremost cat grooming association made just for professional cat groomers.  The response to our training, certification program, teaching tools, and organization as a whole has totally blown me away!  I am in awe!

And I thank each and every one of you who have invested your time and resources into making yourself a better cat groomer.  I truly appreciate all of our members, our instructors, and those in the industry who have let me step up onto the dog sidewalk and pave a way for cats, at last.  I joke that my mission in life is “saving the world one cat at a time.”  I’m beginning to think it’s not really a joke after all.

Finally.  I could enter a grooming show contest that I was actually eligible to compete in. And I won!
Okay, so it wasn’t a grooming contest, per se.  But it was a contest.

I entered the Groomers Got Talent contest at the Hershey Groom Expo and won 1st place for a song I wrote.  Despite the fact that my voice was coarse, scratchy and almost gone the night before and still quite raspy the next morning, I was able to squeak out the song.  A few of the notes were a bit ragged, but hey………what can I say.

And to think I almost bailed on the whole thing right before it started.

Thanks for letting me brag a bit.  It’s just that I either find myself at shows (like Barkleigh shows) where I can’t compete in any competitions just because they are biased against cats.  Or I am able to “participate” in a competition, without the option to actually compete or win anything, because of one of those pesky show rules about speakers not being able to compete.  So for now….I am basking in my trophy and my new “diamond” ring prize, and the fact that Mr. B’s Productions whisked me away to their nearby recording studio to cut a single!

This groomer’s got talent, baby!

My Lifelong Dream – click to listen

Hershey is less than a week away!  I am excited as we gear up for the biggest grooming show of the year.

This year I will not be speaking, which is sort of a relief.  I am usually so overly busy at this show that I come home completely wiped out.  Since my schedule isn’t quite so full this year we will be able to do some booth demos with live cats – something I’ve wanted to do every year. In addition, I’ll be doing my usual demos in the Wahl booth.

At the NCGIA booth, we will be showing some live cats before their groom.  Then we’ll run downstairs to give them a good show bath before bringing them back up to the booth to dry using the CS Vac. As we perform all the finish work, observers will be able to pick up some handling techniques and cat-specific product usage tricks.

A few cats will then go with me to the Wahl booth for some clipper work while I do a standard lion cut, a creative groom, and whatever else suits my fancy at that particular time.

Something new this year at the show is the “Got Talent” competition on Saturday.  It is a luncheon event.  I took the plunge and decided to enter.  If you want to know what my entry is, you’ll have to come see for yourself.  I promise it will make you laugh even if I don’t mess it up royally.

See you there!

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