Welcome!

Welcome to Hair of Ze Dog! My name is J I'll be your cruise director for this evening. I started this journal to share some of the ups and downs of my grooming empire....Well it's not an empire yet, but in a few years maybe it will be. What would John Stazko do? Ahem... I don't know what came over me? When my dogs leave my salon I want them to look like they are ready for the ring at Westminster. That is my goal every. time. But I'm still learning. And basically, aren't we all? As a groomer--I mean pet stylist (that's what you have to be now or whenever someone asks you what you do their first response will always be 'You're a what??') As a pet stylist I reach out to anyone I can (to an annoying level probably) to learn as much as I can about making dogs happy and beautiful. So if you are a pet stylist and you are better and more famous than me please share.

My pet styling career started long before I knew I wanted to be a pet stylist. Really. I just needed a job. I had just moved back to Philly after my first attempt at living on my own had sort of back-fired, I had no job and no place of my own. The only things I had were an alcoholic boyfriend who had me living with him at his mother's house and a storage bill as high as the rent on a two bedroom apartment back in my home town. My job search led me to every crummy retail dump in the neighborhood. You can judge if you want, but I knew that as soon as I found a job I'd start apartment hunting, and as soon as I found an apartment I'd dump the alcoholic. I mean really, here was a guy who would get so drunk every night he couldn't remember what you said five seconds ago.

I didn't know the area well, so I just got on the widest road I could find that wasn't a highway and drove. About ten miles up (that means north) I found a shopping center the likes of which I had not seen since I left the suburban wonderland that is San Antonio. I pulled in. This was familiar. Target, Lowe's, Barnes & Noble, and international-pet-retail-chain. My friend back home had said something about international-pet-retail-chain and lots of money and animals, so I went in. I was hired almost on the spot as a "pet care specialist", and later became a bather in the salon. The deal was that I would go away to grooming school (fine with me, it would ease my break-up from afore boyfriend) then return for apprenticeship.

As I said before, I just needed a job. I thought this would be a good way to make good money and have a flexible schedule so I could go back to school. I was absolutely right. As a fully fledged groomer I made great money and could change my availability as necessary to fit my college class schedule. But here's the thing: I got hooked. Yup. Absolutely completely hooked on the dog hair. I think I must have gotten a hair splinter in my sinus that somehow migrated into my cerebrum and stimulated the opioid receptors in my thalamus. Damn hair splinters...

So here I am five years later. Stay tuned for stories of my craziness.