Belladonna: baths, breeds, and bows

Today, I took Bella to the groomers for the first time ever. Well, it's possible that she'd been to the groomers before, but not with us. We've never given her so much as a bath. Oh, sure, I give her a good brush every now and then, but that's about it. Terriers aren't supposed to be bathed but every few months or so, it's not good for their sensitive skin.

We'll Bella was stinky. And scruffy. Well, we like her scruffy...but it was high-time for something. So we shelled out the big bucks to get her groomed at the local PetSmart. There aren't many places around here that will hand-strip a dog, but PetSmart is one of them. Well, the lady was super nice and very informative. And, very important, Bella liked her.

Want to know what I learned today? My pugairn isn't a pugairn--which is just as well since Bella is cuter than any pugairn I've seen. The groomer thinks that Bella is, in fact, neither pug nor cairn terrier. She showed me pictures of various other terrier breeds: norwich, norfolk, and border. We came to the decision that Bella has a Norfolk Terrier face and a Border Terrier body. Whatever she is, I call her cute.

I'll be honest, I was a little worried how Bella'd do at the groomers. She doesn't much like water and she used to try to bite the brush. I dropped her off around 7:30am and they called me to pick her up around noon...yes it takes that long to hand-strip! Bella got a good report. She had been really good and friendly with everyone. She didn't even have a problem taking a bath, which really surprised me.

Also, they put little red bows in her fur! How cute is my little puppy?

(Belladonna, by the way, means "beautiful lady." It was the name of the dog after whom Bella was named.)