Since she was six months old, Kimber has gone to the same grooming parlour.  She’s always been well looked after, and she loves going there.  But last week, she turned her back on the parlour she’s been loyal to for almost a year, and went somewhere else.  I’ve avoided discussing it because I’m not sure that it paints me in the most positive light, but now I feel able to reveal the shocking, shameful secret we’ve been hiding.  The real reason for Kimber’s groomer defection.

There are, actually, a couple of reasonable explanations for this switch of affections.

It’s really far away

The parlour is on the other side of the city from where we live.  It takes an age to get there, there are always traffic snarls, and it’s too far for me to go home and then come back for her.  Which means I either have to hang out in a cafe for a couple of hours, or go and visit my parents.  If I’m honest, those are two of my favourite things to do.  So it’s a reason, but it’s not a very good one.

Bad haircuts

The last two haircuts have annoyed me.  A couple of times ago, they cut one set of eyelashes off, meaning that one set was short and the other long.  I don’t like when things aren’t even.  The last haircut was even worse: her muzzle was shorter on one side than the other, and there were long bits of fur on her tummy.  A reasonable person would’ve called up and discussed the problem.  But a reasonable person wouldn’t have had a third reason to fall back on.

The real reason

The real reason, I’m ashamed to say, concerns their Facebook Page.  You see, they use their Facebook Page to feature the pooches they’ve had in their salon each day.  They groom a lot of dogs, so they choose the best and cutest ones to feature.  And despite telling me what an angel Kimber is (I know this already), and how amazingly cute she is (well, duh!), they have never, ever featured her.  Now please don’t tell me that she just has to wait her turn.  She’s been going there for almost a year, and some dogs have featured twice in that time!!  But my baby, not even once.  So I’ve moved her to a local groomer that doesn’t even have a Facebook Page.  Never mind the time to take photos of other dogs, time that should be spent making sure that my puppy’s face is even…