Before and After

I have this (obviously misguided) idea that I can do just about anything I set my mind to doing. I wanted to play guitar -- I taught myself. I wanted to make a quilt for my parents' 50th wedding anniversary -- I borrowed a sewing machine and got to work. I wanted to design and redecorate Hannah and Lizzie's bedroom for under $500 -- I scoured ebay until I got it done. I wanted to save the $70 or so bucks it cost to get my boy Cash groomed -- I got myself a grooming kit and ... well, did THIS to my dog:

Can't you tell how ticked off he is just by looking at him? I tried to cut his fur, but it was all matted, so I figured I just shave him down. Only I couldn't get my clippers through the mats on his fur. So I gave up. Only I gave up after I had shaved down part of his back, one full leg, one partial leg and then cut the mats out of some of his hind quarters. Then I had to hide all the mirrors in the house, so he wouldn't see what I had done, but here he clearly got a look at himself in the reflection on the door:

Luckily there are many groomers in town, so I took Cash to one very far away who wouldn't know me and she was able to not only save the hair on his ears and tails (no top knot, but that was my fault for over-shaving his face...) she didn't laugh at me or my attempts to groom my own dog. At least not to my face. It's kind of like the first time I decided to color my hair myself and ended up begging the stylist to PLEASE get my hair to look LESS orange and MORE brown.

Anyway, doesn't he look handsome?

And yes, I got him a coat -- go ahead and laugh if you want, but I think it's stylin' and he loves it. At least I THINK that's why he keeps biting at it. And just so you know, Hannah and Lizzie wanted to get him the totally adorable boots that went with the coat, but I had to draw the line somewhere. We also got him a soft bed in hopes that he wouldn't spend all of his time on the couch with me, making it nearly impossible for me to take a nap:

Although as you can see, that didn't really work, but he WILL use his dog bed if I'm in the kitchen or something. If I'm already napping on the couch before he jumps up, he usually just jumps on top of me.

So with his new haircut (and I will be grooming him more regularly -- who knew you had to comb a dog's hair every day?? Certainly no poodle owners that I know...) I took some dog-model photos of him:

Can't you just tell he's saying thank-you?