Groomers Story: "Oh By the Way..."

In order to understand this story, you have to know a little bit about being a groomer. People bring us their dogs and leave them in our care for a few hours or a day. They trust us to take the very best of care of them and it's a responsibility that most of us take very seriously.

I groom in a very small town and I know most of my client's dogs almost as well as I know my own. I know their personalities and their health problems. Unlike many grooming shops, I do a fair number of elderly dogs. My oldest client is 20. Grooming seniors is special. They often have severe life threatening health conditions that the stress of even the most careful grooming can make worse so I am always a little concerned that something might happen at the shop.

I have one client in particular who is elderly and has a congestive heart condition. She requires special care while she is here and she is here frequently. I always, always worry about her until she is safe in her owner's arms.

A month or so ago, I was checking her out and heaving a sigh of relief that we had made it through another day without any crisis when her owner looked at me and said,

"Oh by the way, she died last week."

The first thing that hit me was confusion, you know the pet semetary kind of confusion because I am looking at a very much alive dog or her twin sister. I believe my jaw must have hit the floor.

He said, "Yup, I went in the kitchen and she was laying on the floor, not breathing and her heart wasn't beating."

I think I managed to stutter an "Oh My God!"

"I thumped her on the chest a couple of times and shook her and she came back to life."

Ok, so now I am having a heart attack. This dog is the constant companion of a retired couple and their sun rises and sets with her. I can't tell you the things that were going through my mind but I did manage,

"Could you let me know if she dies again BEFORE I groom her?"

So the moral of this story is that if your dog has been born again, please let your groomer know of that or any other health conditions when you drop them off. This pup gets the royal treatment when she is with me and I still worry that something might happen and I might not be as quick to do CPR as her owner was.