\u201cYou see what I mean?\u201d I asked Hubby while stretching over the bathroom sink examining my locks in the mirror.<\/p>\n
\u201cYeh, I guess.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cHere, let me show you.\u201d I plucked a couple of strands to prove my point and swished them in front of him.<\/p>\n
No, I wasn\u2019t going bald from chemo or some hereditary wicked gene. I knew exactly what was causing my defoliation\u2026work! Supervising twenty-nine employees and juggling impossible demands to produce 200% quantity and quality was stressing me to the point where I began job-hunting.<\/p>\n
Meanwhile, Child #4, had returned from her first year of college and announced, \u201cMom, Dad, you\u2019re spending a lot of money on tuition and I don\u2019t really know what I want to do. But, I\u2019m wondering about becoming a pet groomer. What would you think about sending me to pet grooming school?\u201d<\/p>\n
Hubby and I glanced at each other. With three other children in college that year, our answer was\u2026yep! And off she went.<\/p>\n
After Kris graduated, she began working for a mobile pet grooming company and as I watched her skip to work each morning, swinging her little grooming kit to play with doggies all day, I thought: I can do that<\/em>. After all I have transferable skills. I\u2019ve cut Hubby\u2019s and five kids\u2019 hair, plus I\u2019m a pro at broom-sweeping.<\/em><\/p>\n Mobile pet grooming was in its infancy in the 80\u2019s and the general response when asked what I did was, \u201cHuh?\u201d My mother said it more succinctly, \u201cIt took you eighteen years to get through college while raising five children and you\u2019re going to do\u2026what?\u201d<\/p>\n Mobile pet groomers, after brushing, bathing and pulling out ear wisps, discover fuzz in the strangest places. It flies up your nose in the van; it\u2019s floating in your Big Gulp; it collects like a pelt under the dash and clogs the blower. It itches, it scratches and when you undress that evening you find it sticking in your bra and undergarments. Trust me; it does not entice amorous feelings from Hubby. And when racing to a party after eight hours in the van a friend might tease, \u201cI love that little touch of white in your hair.\u201d<\/p>\n A macabre pet-groomer joke was, \u201cWhen we die, they\u2019re going to find our lungs clogged with pet hair.\u201d<\/p>\n I was nonplussed the first time a client handed me a bag to fill with Susie\u2019s clipped locks. I must have appeared startled, because she clarified, \u201cI spin it and knit little coats for her.\u201d<\/p>\n The second time a pet\u2019s owner asked me to save her fur I asked, \u201cAre you knitting a sweater for Hank?\u201d<\/p>\n She looked askance. \u201cNo, indeed, I make animal pictures with it. You wouldn\u2019t believe how popular they are.\u201d<\/p>\n No, I wouldn\u2019t.<\/em><\/p>\n How ironic that my own balding condition resulted in twenty-one years of removing hair from cats, dogs, wolves and the occasional bunny.<\/p>\n Who would have guessed?<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" \u201cYou see what I mean?\u201d I asked Hubby while stretching over the bathroom sink examining my locks in the mirror. \u201cYeh, I guess.\u201d \u201cHere, let me show you.\u201d I plucked… <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":8,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[115],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/thelehighacresgazette.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/29218"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/thelehighacresgazette.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/thelehighacresgazette.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thelehighacresgazette.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/8"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thelehighacresgazette.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=29218"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/thelehighacresgazette.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/29218\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/thelehighacresgazette.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=29218"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thelehighacresgazette.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=29218"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thelehighacresgazette.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=29218"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}