Mega gets a haircut

Yesterday Mega had her back to school hair cut at Vanity Fur and she looks so cute - you can actually see her eyes, now that the floppy long bangs are gone. But she refused to let me take her picutre. As soon as she sees my camera, she runs the other way. Even if I lure her with a treat, she runs when the camera comes out.
Best possible shot is this one - really, she just wanted to get inside because it was dinner time. Bu her tail is down - usually when she is expecting dinner, it's up there, waving away.

Not that this haircut is a proper hand strip, which is what you are supposed to do with your Norwich. There are web sites that describe the process, like this one from a breeder. But if her cut today cost $60.00, and was done by hand, I can only imagine what a true "hand stripping" must run. In fact there are few groomers in the area willing to do the job. The only person I've found so far is someone named Anna at Bandilane in Darien. But she is highly recommended.

Found a nifty new dog bed

Today we spotted the niftiest dog bed at Pet Pantry. It's really nothing but a rectangle with filling, but it's made of a plush fabric so soft, you want to take a nap on it yourself. The bed is made by PetDreams. Another feature: the whole thing goes into the washer and dryer. It always feels like wrestling with an aligator to get most other cushions back into the case after you wash them. This is one bed we've got to try. And if Ches and Mega don't like it, well I'm going to sit on it myself.

return

Karat has to have been the best dog I ever had the chance to call my own. She is beautiful, she is obedient, she stayed by my side, she loves to ride in the car. Chessie is beautiful, but she has a mind of her own. She hates to ride in the car, mostly, I suppose, because it seems to upset her stomach - classic car sickness. But Chessie was jealous. She never used to follow me around, but suddently, she wanted to know why Karat was with me. She watched our every move (how does a partly sighted dog watch? With her nose.) She took every toy I gave Karat, even while in the midst of her favorite game of tug.

So I took her back. It would not have been fair to either dog to force them to share this space. Karat is always going to be submissive. Chessie is always going to take the toys. Karat will find a great home - there must be 200 families on the waiting list. And bottom line, Chess is the dog I love, so she comes first.

One positive outcome - besides increasing my high respect for the professionalism of the Guiding Eyes people - I had to buy a new water/food dish. I took Karat and Mega down to at Pet Pantry to see what we could find. And because they no longer carried my usual choice, a round hard plastic "crock" model, I chose a new kind. It's made by PetMate. The one I have is called the FreshFlow model, and it's just heavy enough to stay in place when the dogs eat from it. The bottom edge has a scallop shape cut out of each side, which makes it easy to pick up.

vets in the Greenwich area

We have visited Dr. Gardner in Port Chester more or less continuously since moving to Connecticut in 1992. He runs a one man office, and in the past year replaced his receptionist who could sometimes seem like she wanted you to go away. He doens't have a web site, but he can be reached at 914 937-2200.

There are several vets right in Greenwich, but we have never felt the need to go elsewhere (except for about a year, when above mentioned receptionist drove us crazy and we went up to Dr. Whittington in Armonk). The Greenwich Veterinary Hospitalon the Post Road on the west side of town has a friendly office, and it's web site has a few neat videos about how to clean your dog's ears and teeth.