I'm a bad mommy!!!

I have three "children":

Sammy, a 7-year-old Cocker Spaniel

Arianna, a 7-year-old Maine Coon cat

Lily, a 1-year-old Guinea Pig

This past week, I've been off from school (our half-term break in the Summer Term...we go until July 20th...yuck!!). So I decided it was time to freshen up around the house. This included the furry critters. Sammy and Arianna both got trimmed and bathed. This is a huge theatrical production when the cat is involved, you honestly would think I was KILLING her. The dog just kind of bats those pitiful cocker spaniel eyes at me and then licks my face as if to say, "I still love you...but you know I'll leave you a present later." The cat is secretly saying, "Girl, if I could get into your closet right now, you wouldn't believe the vomit you'd find in your shoes!!"

So anyway, in an ode to this wonderful celebration, I'm posting before pics of the cat so you can see what I've done. I give her a "lion cut" once a year, because her hair is so dark and dense that the poor thing just bakes in the summer. For those of you who don't quite understand what that is, you basically leave the hair on her head, legs, and tail uncut. Well....I made a little "boo boo" and cut the majority of her hair around her head (I'm not a freakin' professional!!!). I trimmed her tail a bit, but not much. Sometimes you can give her a little pom pom on the tip of her tail, which I think is sooooo cute, but noone agrees with me. :-)

Now we have the "after" pictures. These just crack me up. In order to get the dog to look at the camera, I had to barter ("you want a treat???"...he about jumped off the couch and directly into the camera to get at me for that one!!). The cat just would NOT look at me. Right now, she's sitting on top of the couch and just glaring at me. Ah, the wonder of our feline friends.

The "after" pics were immediately after bathing, so they are both still wet. In fact, now at 2 hours post-humiliation, the cat is still pretty damp. The big white spot you can see in the first "after" picture is actually from an unfortunate event as a kitten before my husband got her. Apparently her previous owners thought it was fun to pour gasoline on her and light her up. She was also kicked around quite a bit. My sister-in-law found her in a shelter in Dallas when she was just a few months old, and convinced my husband to drive down from Oklahoma (where he was stationed at the time) and get her. She's always had the white spot: her hair just grows white in that spot. It just seems to add to her eccentric personality. She only gets bathed a few times a year (if that: I don't want to go through this unless I HAVE to!!), but the dog gets bathed pretty often due to a skin condition. He doesn't care for the procedure, but both of them have the same reaction: they strut around like they are hot stuff once they are dry and have forgotten the pain and embarrassment of having their bums washed. :-)