Interesting Day

Today was such an interesting day, and not necessarily in a good way.

First, the other groomer who works with me on Sundays was late. VERY late. So here's how my morning went:

We start grooming at 9 on Sundays, but the actual store doesn't open until 10, so the groomers are the only employees there that early. The first dog came in a couple minutes early. It was the other groomer's (I'll call her Jane, but that isn't her real name). So I asked if she wanted to wait for Jane or if she wanted me to go ahead and take her dog back, and she said she'd wait. She had a little tiny terrier mix, and my standard poodle and very large labradoodle pulled into the parking lot as she was walking in. So I ushered her to one side of the store, knowing how rambunctious the big ones are.

So I got my two put away, then came up to talk to Jane's customer again. Do you still want to wait? It was several minutes after 9 by now, with no sign of Jane. Yes, I'll still wait, she said.

So I put my labradoodle on the table and started plucking his ears (side note: this dog has easily the hairiest ears I have seen in my entire grooming career) and texting Jane.

9:03 - Your dog is here, are you close?

9:08 - Your customer is standing around waiting for you

9:15 - Irritated voice mail

9:20 - Tell customer I can't get hold of Jane and ask if she would like to keep waiting or reschedule.

9:22 - Ok, I rescheduled your dog.

Even though I do not own, run, or manage this store or groom shop, I'm angry as all get out that I had to reschedule a customer. This is not the first time Jane has been late. It probably won't be the last, either. A good, regular customer just spent more than 20 minutes standing around waiting for their dog to get groomed, just to be told they were out of luck! That's just wrong. Not to mention all the time I had to spend texting and calling Jane and dealing with her customer; that's time I should've been working on my own dogs. So now I was behind through no fault of me or my customer.

Great.

So I'm already very upset when I get this:

9:27 - (paraphrase) I'm so sorry!

9:28 - Did you just wake up?

9:29 - Ya I totally slept through alarm

9:32 - What time is my next one coming in

9:34 - 10:30 I think

...

9:39 - Are u sure my lunch wasn't after my first dog

9:41 - I did not respond well to her asking me to go double check her schedule when I was already behind because of her. I will leave out the details of this text, but it was not pretty.

Later, she did apologize and sounded sincere about it. She swears it won't happen again, but she's 21 and seems to use her age as an excuse to do whatever she wants.

Anyway, in large part due to dealing with Jane's lateness, I had to groom through my lunch to finish the poodle and doodle.

My next dog was due in at 2. I had just enough time to chug a Slimfast shake between finishing the poodle and doodle and my 2 o'clock appointment.

Or so I thought.

2:15 - I finally call my 2:00. Oh my God, it's 2! (Actually it's 2:15) Can you still do her today? If you can get here before 2:30, I can still finish her before we close at 4.

2:35 - Customer finally comes in. And the dog is matted. I think it will blow out with the dryer, and it is hard to say how much matting there is because of the way I am holding her.

4:05 - I managed to get a long blade under the mats so I don't need to shave her bald. Hand her over to the customer who again apologizes for being late.

Luckily I have no plans, because I usually finish my dogs 10-15 minutes early, then clean and still leave close to 4. Today I didn't even start cleaning until after four.

Anyway, come home, take the dogs out. Both dogs were having a little bit of diarrhea a couple days ago and hadn't done much of anything yesterday or this morning. Hailey had a normal poop; Dillin had some normal, some in between, and then some straight up diarrhea.

Came inside, sat down at my computer, got on Facebook. I look over, Dillin is sitting very oddly against the patio door curtains. As I'm looking at him, he gets up, walks a few feet into the living room, and starts to spin. I shout NOOOO but it's too late...

He had bloody diarrhea all over my living room.

And then he knew I was mad at him for pooping in the living room, so he cowered and ran into the dining room.

Where he had more bloody diarrhea.

I really don't have the money to take him to the vet right now, so that caused a mini meltdown. Anyway, I decided to give him a day or two and see how he does. He tends to eat strange things when I'm not looking, so maybe something is having a hard time passing, but will come out soon.

So, tomorrow I have all small dogs, which is AWESOME! That hardly ever happens, I have way too many poodle, doodle, and golden requests. The only thing is...

One of those small dogs bites me every time she comes in.

She's really sweet, but she's a rescue, and STILL terrified of me. I have hope that someday she will remember that I do not beat her when I see her. And luckily her mouth is too small and her teeth are too dull to do any damage. But still. Nobody likes to get bit. So when you ask if I get bit doing my job...

YES. Yes I do. At least every six weeks when this dog comes in, and sometimes in between.