Humiliation Complete

I was finally feeling better today, so after completely disinfecting our house with bleach (I do not ever want to be that sick again, omg), we headed out with the dogs to enjoy the spring sun.  First stop was the dog park, a real gem in our town.  There’s this huge open field, gotta be a few acres, that’s open to dogs off leash.  On the weekends there’s tons of people and dogs there, it’s a real social place.  So much fun and the dogs love it. 

After the dog park, we had a random idea to stop by the pet store to see how much it would cost to groom Hope the shih-tzu.  I’ve groomed her at home for her entire life (all six years) mostly to save money.  But I’ve kind of had it with dog hair flying all over the house and my clipper blades are dull so I figured maybe just maybe she’s ready for her very first spa day.  So we went into the pet store with all three dogs.  Chaos insued.  Simon escaped his collar and ran around with wild abandon unwilling to be caught.  A store employee finally tricked him with a bag of cookies that he buried his head in.  She held on to him, but oh, did I mention he was muddy from the dog park?  Got a nice grimace from that employee when I finally caught up to them.   She  suggested that most people with small dogs put them in the carts.  Fine.  Simon went in a cart.  I wandered until I found S, but right at that moment, Loki the big black dog slipped his collar and ran around with wild abandon.  He was not easily tricked by cookies, and pretty much danced around just out of reach of S and employees alike while I rushed to check out and leave the store with the other two dogs to secure them in the car.  Loki was finally caught, and fitted for a harness right there on the spot.  Everyone teased him because he got a purple one that makes him look a bit like a girl.  He doesn’t seem to care though.  As I was on my way out to the car, Simon took a leap out of the cart, into the parking lot, and took off.  Yes folks, the ol’ small-dog-in-a-cart-trick did not work.  Fortunately, after a few spins he took off back into the store where the grimacing employee tackled him again.  At this point, I was beyond humiliated.  Way…  beyond…  humiliated.  I went and sat in the car with the two littles until S met me there with the big.  I’m thinking Simon needs a harness too!  Oh, they look so inncoent don’t they???

At least I got Col.d Sto.ne out of the deal.  S took pity on me and bought me my favorite flavor.  Yum!!  Hope has her first real grooming next Friday.  Here’s hoping it’s not quite as eventful.  I’m a bit worried about how she’ll behave since it’s the first time…