Yesterday, as you may have heard, Sarah went for her summer spa day.
She came home hungry, tired, and looking like a very large puppy.
The voices in my head were squabbling.
I, who showed dogs for many years, seem to still have a case of the way we’ve always done it.
I say this knowing that there are an awful lot of other folks with different versions of the way we’ve always done it who think they’re just as right as I think I am.
Take, for example, Poodle people. Their always and Newfoundland people’s always look pretty different!
And there’s part of me that still hates having Sarah clipped short.
It’s also true that Sarah has allergies and an odd, wooly coat that mats about half an hour after you quit brushing her, which she doesn’t enjoy much anyway.
And so we clip.
And she looks like something Dr. Seuss dreamed up!
The voices in my head squabbled louder, though, when it came to deciding what to do for Phoebe on her spa day, today.
She’s really lovely and has a gorgeous coat. In the winter.
Right now, she itches. A lot.
And she’s blowing so much coat she could be an entire ad for a vacuum cleaner.
I asked my Newf buddies and got lots of good advice.
I still felt a lot like I did when Dave got his first “big boy” haircut and the ringlets went the way of history.
Then I remembered something I count on. (You may have those kinds of things, too.)
It’s all in what you’re trying to accomplish!
And, oddly, the Poodle people and the Newf people are trying to accomplish the same thing, at least historically. Protecting dogs from cold water!
I’m trying to accomplish comfortable, relatively easy care dogs who think of grooming as a good thing instead of torture. (Luther, too!)
It would also, if we’re being honest, be ok if I didn’t contribute quite so much money and energy to the Swiffer thing!
So, we’re letting go of the way we’ve always done it.
Also, I guess, we’ve never done it that way before.
I’m going with what I’m trying to accomplish.
I imagine it will be interesting!
As God is watering the garden today, I’m going to get really brave and start the next layer on my painting which is, when I think about it, another of those things I’ve never done that way before.
At least I’ll have less hair to pick out of the canvas!
Phoebe, as it turns out, is just right for her.
Sarah is a bit skeptical.
And Luther made it three whole steps into the new family room to find out what all the fuss was about.
Sometimes I guess right twice in the same day!