11/24/2025
📖STORY TIME:
One of my first severe cases. This is truly when I realized dog grooming is more than just making a dog clean and cute.
One of my dear clients at the time was taking her grandchild to school and always drove by the same abandoned house, but one day she noticed a small dog crate that she hadn’t seen before. Something in her gut told her to stop and check that crate. When she looked in the crate, she said “At first I didn’t know what I was even looking at. Dog? Cat? Stuffed animal? I had no clue. Then the poor thing raised his head a little and I could see eyes.”
She quickly put the crate in her car and called the vet clinic I worked at. She asked to speak to me to see if I had time to help. After hearing about this discovery I told her “I’ll make time. Bring it to me.”
I was waiting in the reception area for her to arrive. When she opened the door and saw me she immediately said “I am so angry. If I ever find who did this, I’m going to k*ll them.” I smiled politely, not realizing how severe the conditions were. I grabbed the crate from her and took it straight to my grooming station. I could smell that the situation was bad, but the poor creature I pulled out of that crate. I will never forget. His back legs were all matted together, preventing him from walking properly. He had a horrific f***l matter mat preventing any waste from leaving his body properly. The mats on his ears were so tight, I really thought I might need Nair to remove them.
What I thought was going to maybe be a couple hour shave down turned out to be an all day ordeal. One that I was horrified by, but equally grateful to be a part of.
The sweet lady that found him said “do whatever you need to. Just help this poor dog. I’ll pay whatever I need to.”
We discovered this was an unaltered male poodle. So so sweet even though he was MISERABLE. Despite his appearance, he was overall pretty healthy according to bloodwork. At the end of the day, the lady came to pick him up. She cried and cried, but couldn’t part with him. He immediately was a part of her family and lived out the rest of his life with her. She named him Fletcher, and I was his groomer for the rest of his days. 🫶🏼