So, how was your Spring Break? I talked to a woman who told me that she waited too long to book a reservation at the kennel for her dog so she had to use a different place. She requested that he be groomed before she picked him up. When she arrived to get him, as she was settling the bill, she was told that it was always nice to have him because he is so good. Right away she knew something was up. "Always nice to have him"? He'd only been once before. "He is so good"? He is a one year old lab full of energy and hard to control. She and her daughter waited for them to bring him out. Time passed. Attendants started speaking among themselves in lowered voices. It was apparent that there was confusion and concern. More time passed. No dog was produced. The woman's fifth grade daughter started to get worried and asked questions. The woman was worried too but had to be stoic in front of her daughter. What was happening? They had lost the dog! Then the moment of truth. The new dog groomer had put the dog in the wrong cage and the dogs were mixed up. The large kennel was filled to the max and the dog was a lab, one of many. They couldn't figure out who's dog was who's. The woman and her daughter were taken back, they walked through cage after cage and there he was. All this while folks were visiting the facility to see about boarding their pets. Turns out the dog never did get groomed but she paid for it. The nervousness that everyone encountered was tense.

I, of course, had to try to top her story. (Don't you just hate when people do that?) I told her about the time I took my little white Bichon Frise to the groomer. I knew I couldn't get back before they closed, so I explained that my son would pick him up. I gave them my son's phone number and told them to call him when the dog was ready, which they did. The dog was old and had experienced a pinched nerve in his back. The vet advised giving him an aspirin daily which helped. It was a nice summer day so my son drove his convertible with the top down. He gets the dog and puts him in the car and drives away confident that the dog is old and can't jump out. However, he notes that the aspirin is really working because the dog is pretty active and jumping around. He puts the dog in my house and leaves. I come home in the evening and check my messages. It was nuts. There was the grooming salon telling me I have to call them immediately. Another call from a woman who I couldn't figure out what she was saying, it was too confusing. She left her number. Then I called my son. He was mad and told me that all anarchy broke out at the groomers and he would never go back. They had called him back and demanded that he bring the dog back. He had taken the wrong one (the one they had walked out and given to him). They scolded and steamed at him "didn't he know his own dog?" This was a dog that we got when my son was eleven. Now my son was grown and no longer lived at home. In fact he had been in the Navy and really had not been at home so he and the dog had both changed and didn't know each other all that well anymore. Turns out that as he was driving off with the wrong dog the lady was coming in to get him and saw the whole thing too late to stop it. She had a melt down and was crying, fearful that the dog was going to get killed jumping out of the car. The groomer had to get the lady to leave (crying about your dog is bad for business when other clients see it). Well, that dog had a great time. It pooped in my house, romped on my bed and terrorized my three cats until it was retrieved and reunited. The lady and I talked on the phone that night furious at how we were treated. We were both good customers of many years. In both of these stories no one had the sense to get a reduced rate or a free service due to dealing with the stress at the time. Lesson learned. Good service gets full price, poor service gets reduced price. That should be a given from the provider. Pets make you smile.