Shabby Chic

 Clipping by stealth seems to be the order of the day now we’ve decided to tackle Nell’s grooming regime ourselves. A few days ago, for example, I had a little go with the scissors around her face and by the time I’d finished, she could see where she was going and her ears were a little shorter, as was the fur on the top of her head, which was rather like trimming a pompom. I’m an old hand at trimming pompoms (from my arty crafty days) - just not pompoms that wriggle and jiggle around. I also managed to trim her nose fur, although somewhat unevenly. Sort of a rustic look.

A couple of days later, we stood her on her grooming table (pink) and used the clippers with the longest clipper guard to go over her body. That was okay. We bribed her with a variety of doggy biscuit treats and all was well. 

And this morning, we had a go with the shorter blades on the clippers and secured enough excess fur so that I could, if I was inclined (which I am not), spin and knit into a set of egg cosies. I have to say though, at one point Andy did say, ‘Oops!’ which roughly translates into ‘and now she’s got a bit of a divot of fur missing from the top of her back left leg’ but hey - it’s nothing that can’t be disguised by a trendy pair of culottes. And the nice thing about fur is that it does grow back. But then if her fur didn’t grow back we wouldn’t be in this débâcle in the first place. Honestly, we were never going to win.

She had a full on wash ‘n’ blow dry, too, which went okay. You know those TV ads for carpet cleaners when they empty the water tank at the end and everyone goes ‘Eurgh’? It was a bit like that. At least she smells better now and she’s stopped barking at the hair dryer. 

This afternoon, she and I were relaxing up the garden in the sunshine. Nell was playing with one of her chewy toys and I was casually sniping at her, hither and thither, with a pair of cunningly concealed scissors. Just tidying up some straggly bits, like you do. She was looking at me as if to say, ‘I know EXACTLY what you are doing but for this moment in time I am finding my chewy toy more interesting. Next time, you might not be so lucky.’ 

I reckon on having one more mini grooming session later this week so she looks a bit more chic than shabby, but all in all, for a first attempt from a couple of amateurs who have minuscule knowledge of clipping a cockapoo, we’ve done all right. Things can only get better. I just need to stock up on some more doggy biscuit treats because she went through a lot of cheese this morning, which isn’t good for her, regardless of how much elle adore le fromage.

And most importantly - we didn’t draw any blood. 

Here she is, fast asleep, quite exhausted by the experience of having a wash, cut ‘n’ blow dry. Can you see her incredibly long ginger eyelashes? I’m making sure to keep those intact. They are really quite adorable!