3 Hours Later

We took the dog to be groomed last Thursday.  It’s the first time he’s been groomed (since we got him from the Humane Society, anyway), so I wasn’t sure how he’d do.  I also had some concerns about him getting anxious about us leaving him with a stranger.  And then overly excited with all the other dogs around.  And maybe biting the groomer.

So, I had my appointment set for 6pm.  A little before 6, we walked in the door, got all signed in and handed Sprocket over.  Then she says "If I haven’t called you by 8:30, just go ahead and come back."  Sure, no problem!  Wait..what?  8:30?  How is it going to take 2.5 hours to groom this little slip of a dog?  He’s 14 lbs!  No bigger than a Maltese.  We don’t even want anything fancy.  Just a bath, nail clipping and a shave.  Okay, whatever.  We’ll go get something to eat.

Duckie and I head out in search of food.  We find said food, eat it and then head to Target.  We spent some time looking at breast pumps (yeah, we’re soooo exciting).  I pretty much know what I’m going to get, I was just hoping to find it cheaper in another brand.  Which I did.  It was so much cheaper, though, that I had to wonder what was wrong with it.  As such, I want to do some research on it and check out reviews and whatnot.  Anyway!

After Target, we popped into Bed, Bath and Beyond.  We’re still looking for a pail for keeping the cloth inserts when they’re soiled, but I think we might end up just using a hanging bag.  In addition to the pail, we’re looking for a stand alone freezer.  Like a mini-fridge, but a freezer.  Unfortunately, they don’t seem to come in mini-fridge size.  At least, not at Bed, Bath and Beyond.  Duckie says they have them for labs (as in laboratories, not Labrador Retrievers), so they must exist somewhere.  Though, I doubt labs get their equipment from BB&B.  So, we head back to the pet store to see if the dog is even being groomed yet.  Nope.  It’s around 7:30 now and he’s nowhere to be seen.  Okay, whatever. 

We walk over to Menards and take a look at their trees.  We’ve been talking about planting a tree for Lily out at the farm and Duckie is always on the lookout for something to bonsai.  There were some nice trees (for planting, not bonsai-ing), but we want to discuss it with Duckie’s dad first for a number of reasons.  (You know, like because it’s his farm.)  We wandered around inside once again looking for pails and freezers.  We found giant freezers and mini-fridges, but no mini-freezer.  This may be something that we need to look for online.

It’s nearing 8 now, so we head back to the pet store.  Sprocket is STILL nowhere in sight.  We sat on a bench for another 15 minutes before Sprocket is finally brought out and put up on a table.  He looks freshly bathed and dried.  Very shiny.  Then the grooming begins.  Okay, so it can’t possibly take too much longer, right?  Wrong.  At 9pm, we’re finally called to come get the dog (and I wonder how much of that is because they close at 9 rather than because they were actually finished).

It wasn’t even his behavior that caused it to take a long time because we watched him part of the time he was being groomed and he was behaving incredibly well.  Or just resigned to his fate.  Not going back there.  If I have to make an appointment and come in at that appointed time, I expect my thing to start at that time.  I get it when people are running a little late (15-30 mins), but unless it took 2 hours just to bathe the dog (and it doesn’t, we’ve done it here several times), there is no excuse for not getting that dog back until 9pm.

So, we head home and realize that it’s around 9:30 when we pull into the parking lot.  Usually, if you’re not back at the complex by 8 or so, you get no parking and get to go park on the street.  We got lucky.  There were some spots.  We head up the outside stairs to get to the joke of a security door…and I put my hand down on a wasp.  God forbid that I should use the railing to help me up the stairs.  Anyway, the wasp didn’t like it much, so it stung me.  And it hurt like hell.  If I could find that wasp again, I would kill it with fire so much.  So very much.  I cried, y’all.  After learning that Duckie is not very good in emergency situations, I got some ice on my ouchie and went to bed.

Where, of course, I dreamt of having babies with a long and painful labor.

How was your Thursday?

Oh!  The upside to all of this is that Sprocket looks super cute and super clean and he’s SUUUUPER soft.