Revisiting the Lion Cut. Roar.

It was time. Wyatt's hair had been matted for some time, and finally I could stand it no more. Each night I would try to run my fingers through his hair and would be greeted with another knotted mass, so I decided to make the call to Brookline Dog Grooming and make him an appointment. Why not Twinkenton, where he got his last cut? Because at Brookline we can stay with him. We go back into the grooming area and we stand with him as they groom him. As they comb him to death and then shave him down. We can't stay at Twinkenton, and we have to leave him all day. How do we know what's happening to him there while we're gone? Plus, they gave him a bath at Twinkenton, and it was directly after that experience that he started to hump. He hasn't stopped, one year later. I don't think we'll be going back to Twinkenton, but we've already made another appointment for Wyatt at Brookline for July.

So this is Wyatt's before photo. Poor guy thinks he's getting his morning wet-food treat. Little does he know that he's about to be crated and driven to Brookline to have all his hair cut off. That's his hair, but not all of it. Most of his hair got sucked up the vacuum that's attached to the shaver, but this was the pile that didn't make it into the vacuum. Can you believe that hair? It's actually beautiful, silky hair. The groomer said it reminded her of alpaca hair, and she wondered at his breed. She said that we could take that hair with us so that we could use it for something, but what could we use it for? We have enough of his hair here, anyway. Just look at my clothes, the sofa, the rug, anywhere. We don't need any more of his hair.

But Wyatt does. Wyatt would have loved to have us bring that hair home and then glue it back on him. Not only is he now half his size, but he's cold. He visibly shakes if he's not curled up into a little ball on a blanket somewhere. To combat that, Doug went out and got him a Snuggie.The Snuggie is for dogs, because we can't find anything like this for cats, and even though Wyatt does not protest wearing it (really - he did not try to get it off, so don't be fooled by his "woe is me" expression - that's just from his haircut. For Wyatt, having the lion cut is like being naked.), he can't walk in it. He has to take very deliberate steps, and it's embarrassing to watch. So he's not wearing his Snuggie full-time, but when we all settle into the couch for the night, with me under a blanket and Doug under one, too, we will put Wyatt's Snuggie on him and we'll all be toasty warm.