As I'm sure all of you know by now, our dog, Oscar, was seized from a home in California because of neglect and abuse. Not only was he treated poorly, underfed and never taken to a vet, he never went to a groomer either and his nails were allowed to grow uncontrolled. As a result, the quicks have gotten much too long and he looks like a canine version of Florence Griffith Joyner. To compound the problem, his nails are jet black so we can't even see the quicks. We were told to just trim his nails until we start seeing the small dot of the quick at the tip. Umm, no thanks. I've seen what happens when you trim an animal's nails too much and I wasn't even going down that road.

I learned the self service dog wash, which we go to, offers grooming services during the week and have taken him there a few times. They use a Dremel tool, which is much gentler than clippers, and they are very patient and slow with him. I had been taking him every two weeks, but it's been almost a month since his last trim because of Christmas. For the sake of what's left of my floors, I decided to take him again this afternoon. This time, I asked specifically about what we could do to get him looking a little less like a falcon. The groomer assured me weekly visits for a month would correct the problem. She said, if we were good about bringing him in for a trim every single week for the next four weeks, his nails would become short enough that we won't even hear them clicking on the floor anymore. Apparently, every time you trim the nails and just barely hit the quick (like she does) the quick retracts and you can trim more the following week. After that, we'll only have to bring him in once every four weeks for maintenance. Sounds like a good plan to me. I'm anxious to see how well it works.

Just for kicks, I asked if they had a "buy 10 nail trims, get one free" or something similar plan. She took a minute to consult with the owner. Upon her return, she told me they have a "buy nine, get the tenth free" plan, but it only applies to dog washes. However, because of all we've done so far to help Oscar and the fact that I'm one of the only owners she's met willing to commit to do so much just to take care of my muttley's nails, they would let me do the same plan for the nail trims. Woot! It never hurts to ask.