How I Know It's Time for the Dog to Get a Haircut...
I have two wonderful rescued dogs.
Henry and Cosmo are brothers who we adopted from a local no-kill shelter about 6 years ago and they’ve brought so much joy into our house that it’s hard to
imagine what life was like for us before they came to live with us. They came
from a litter of 7 and they all had names that started with “H”. Henry,
Humphrey, Hogan, Hannah, Heidi, Hector and Huey. Henry is, for all intents and
purposes, a Henry. He’s like a little old man, he does his own thing, he gives
not a single crap. Cosmo (the former Huey) is the exact opposite. Cosmo is a pleaser,
he lives to make you happy. And he’s a special kind of dog. If Cosmo was a
human, he’d have to wear a helmet. He’s such a sweet dog, they both are,
really. But Cozzie is just a special kind of special. He chases lights on the
wall, he will stare at dust as it rises in the sunlight and bite the reflection
of the doorknob from the bathroom door to the hallway wall. There is a
permanent line of bite marks on the wall, because Coz just can’t get it that
it’s a light and he’ll never, no matter how many times he bites it, ever catch
it.
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| My Cosmo. Just look at that sweet face. |
But I digress. Cosmo is my short-haired boy. Henry is my
higher maintenance boy. He’s got some Golden Retriever in him, so he’s got long
hairy legs, hairy ears, a giant hairy tail, tufts of hair between his toes, a
big fuzzy ass and did I mention long hairy legs?
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| His Majesty, Sir Henry of the Couch |
Good, because that’s key to the story.
I try to brush him and keep him knot free, but that’s not always possible with
the crazy life we lead. So there are times when the boy has some knots and I
try to work them out without having to cut his fur. Last week was one of
those times. The dogs had been outside after a rain storm, and when they came
in, Henry did what he normally does. He sat next to me, and nudged my arm off
the computer mouse until I pet him. So I’m rubbing his side, trying to make him
shake that leg and I felt something in his long leg hair, something that didn’t
quite belong there. ‘Must be a knot, he’s got a bunch’ I thought, as I watched
Criminal Minds and tried to maneuver the hair around this spot so that the knot
would work its way out. But it wasn’t working. The ‘knot’ just refused to
loosen up. I thought I was going to have to get the scissors. And then I looked
at the ‘knot’. Turns out, not so much a knot. More like an earthworm. Yes, you
read that right, Henry had an earthworm stuck to his fur under his leg. I’m not
squeamish at all, in fact, I actually started laughing at this predicament.
I asked my oldest to get a tissue as I struggled
to get the earthworm to sit still, while trying to get Henry to sit still. A
squiggly worm on a long haired dog, and neither will sit still. This ought to
be fun! So I grabbed the tissue and lost the worm. Sounds like a horrible
tequila induced nightmare, doesn’t it? I tried to get Henry to lie down on his
side so I could get a clearer view of his underarm hair and try to find the
elusive worm. But Henry would have none of it and I continued to struggle to
find the worm. Thank goodness he’s a tan dog and not a darker red color like
his brother Humphrey. I’d NEVER find an earthworm on a red dog.
After a good 5 minutes of searching and trying to keep Henry still, I found the
earthworm and pulled. Guess what. Now we had 2 earthworms. My oldest was
COMPLETELY grossed out at the half an earthworm, now squiggling around on the
tissue, while I tried to capture the OTHER half of the now much shorter
earthworm that was squiggling around in Henry’s hairy armpit. Cue the
Benny Hill music. Henry was struggling to get me out of his pit, oldest
daughter was gagging over the two halves of an earthworm, both sides dancing
the Macarena, husband and youngest child were laughing at me and Cosmo was
chasing dust mites he saw glowing in the family room light. If Henry would just
hold still, the dust mites would settle down and that would be one less thing
to deal with. All I needed at that point was for the cat to come in and hack up
a hairball. My night would be complete.
All good stories have a happy
ending, and this one is no different. The cat didn’t hack, Cosmo didn’t catch
any dust mites, Henry finally settled down long enough for me to catch the
other end of that little bugger, and we went back to Criminal Minds. But we did
have a good, hearty laugh at Henry and his little Wormy buddy. We’re taking
Henry to the groomer on Monday.
Little diva dog...a little worm in the hair never hurt anybody...right? Haha
ReplyDeleteHe was completely unaware. Silly mutt.
DeleteI'm with your daughter....grossed out! Pretty cute dogs, though.
ReplyDeleteThanks Eva. They are two big sweeties.
DeleteThat earthworm was trying to keep warm!
ReplyDeleteHe picked the wrong dog to find for warmth!!
Delete