I just completed a serious canine brushing event. Much less fur is on the hounds, but now a lot of it is on me. The canine team looks a lot better, but I look a lot worse. I have fur in my throat and in and on all my clothes. So I’m feeling a little disgusting at the moment.
During this burst of activity, I also did the semi-annual feet fur trimming. If you have really furry dogs and live in a snowy climate, you probably understand why I trim feet fur in the wintertime. It’s not for aesthetic reasons, although their feet do look a little tidier after I do it. No, I trim feet fur for canine comfort.
As dogs run through the snow, ice and packed snow collects on the fur that hangs off the bottom of their feet. Soon you have a pack of very erratically moving canines as they pause repeatedly to chew ice chunks from between their foot pads. I figure it’s probably like having a really serious (and cold) rock in your shoe. Or four shoes. Ow.
Leto has particularly hairy feet. He’s kind of a goofy dog on a good day, but when he’s got gigantic snowballs on the top and bottom of his feet, he’s an even bigger clod than usual. It takes ages to remove all the fur tufts that stick up from his big paws. Apparently, the grooming process was quite exhausting for him too, because he’s now doing his imitation of a polar bear rug.
In any case, this is the last Pet Tails for this year, so I would like to wish everyone happy holidays and a wonderful new year. Give all your critters a big hug and I’ll see you in 2004 😉