like mother, like daughter

A couple months ago, I got a nail trimmer for my dog. I had contemplated just using my personal nail clippers but the combined thought of the nastiness in then using them myself and the certainty that they wouldn't be big enough to get her fat claws into forced me to peruse the options at Petco. And jesus but those bastards are expensive! My choices ranged from the cheap and dirty scissor-like clippers (which I'm sure wouldn't even cut paper) to the questionable "Quick-finder" clippers that claim to make it foolproof to avoid having your dogs' paws bleeding like a virgin on prom night.

I was looking for the Pedi File, (I later learned it's called Pedi Paws, but since Janessa kept referring to it as that and I enjoy the horrible un-PCness of that brand name I will stubbornly refuse to address it by its proper name) a tool that just basically sands your dogs' nails down to oblivion without you having to cut anything. But they didn't have it, and the Oster Nail Grinding Kit sounded a little too barbaric for my tastes.

So I got these clippers but hadn't done anything with them for fear of accidentally cutting off a paw or cutting into the blood vessels, since Sheba's nails are black and I have no idea where the quick is, and am just generally inept when it comes to pet grooming. But last night after my dad's comment that Sheba looks like that man in India whose nails are all curled up inside socks, I decided to go for it.

In the end, both of us did pretty well. My strategy was to just grab and clip without spending too much time trying to decide if maybe I was cutting off too much, and her strategy was to squirm and twist and immediately eat all of the clippings that flew off as if they were made of prime beef. It was pretty disgusting, but then, she does lick her own anus.

Today is Brain's 30th birthday. Happy birthday to Brain! I just ate a biscotti in his honor.