Doggie Designs Mobile Grooming

08/18/2026

Never lift a turtle by their tail. 🐢 Learn how to keep yourself and our wild friends safe by sharing our newest fact sheet: https://bit.ly/3U7zqK3

08/12/2026

08/10/2026

08/10/2026

This weekends intakes, and many of the subsequent comments and emails, tell me we need to have a chat.

Meet one of our newest friends. As you can see, she has a particular coat pattern known as merle, and light colored eyes. She also appears to be an English Bulldog. We also took in several bulldogs of the French variety, all in shades of “Bulldogs don’t come in these colors”.

And there are many of you who keep saying- they look like my dog. And while I hope that ALL of you adopted those dogs, I know that many of you did not. Meaning- that you financially supported the type of abusive and neglectful breeding practices that are becoming ever popular in an attempt to keep up with the demand for unethically bred bulldog mixes in ✨fancy colors✨that led to creating a dog so unhealthy, he couldn’t even survive an hour long car ride to freedom.

So while I think it’s great that you want to adopt one of our dogs, I also want you to realize that these dogs exist, and the breeders who abuse them exist, because you’re keeping them in business.

French and English Bulldogs don’t come in merle. Or fluffy. Or platinum. Or Isabella. Or black and tan. Or tri color. These are poorly bred, mixed breed dogs whose health was sacrificed in an effort to produce pretty dogs in fancy colors.

Every day dogs die due to human ignorance and greed. Puppy mills stay in business because the public is funding them. Please do better.

08/07/2026

07/26/2026

I want to share something important about the young raccoon currently in my care — something that many people don’t realize about wildlife, especially raccoons. She was found lying beside her mother and sibling after they were struck and killed by a car. She was the only one still alive. She wasn’t running. She wasn’t crying. She wasn’t injured in any obvious way. She was simply curled against them quiet and shut down.Juvenile raccoons form incredibly strong bonds with their mothers and littermates. Their mother is their entire world — their source of safety, warmth, guidance, and emotional regulation. Their siblings are their playmates, their comfort, their social teachers. They sleep together, explore together, and learn together. Their family is their foundation. When a young raccoon loses her mother and sibling suddenly and violently, her nervous system experiences a trauma that goes far beyond the physical. Even if her body survives, her emotional world collapses. What she showed that day — lying still beside them — wasn’t “being uninjured.” It was grief. Shock. Confusion. A complete shutdown of her sense of safety. Since coming into care, she’s been eating well, drinking well, and using her litter box. But she remains very quiet and sleeps more than usual. This isn’t illness. It’s emotional trauma. Her body recovered quickly, but her spirit is still healing. Even my own son, who loves animals, didn’t fully understand how deeply a raccoon can be affected by loss until he saw her. Many people assume wildlife “just move on,” but that’s not how social mammals work — especially not juveniles who depend so heavily on their family. Right now she’s safe, warm, and surrounded by calm. I have other raccoons her age, but I’m giving her time before introducing them. She needs to rebuild her sense of security before she can connect with new companions. When she’s ready, she’ll have raccoon friends again.
Thank you to everyone following her journey. She’s not “just an animal.” She’s a young life who lost everything familiar in one moment — and she’s healing at her own pace.

07/22/2026

KEEP DOGS OUT OF WATER: DuPage forest preserve officials were warning residents to keep dogs out of the water in an off-leash area where the algal bloom was confirmed. Kids and those with compromised immune systems are also at risk.