[my2boyz]

My husband and I are currently on vacation in another state. The girls are with us so we seem to be in and out of any pet store or boutique that might have something interesting or exciting for them.

We walked into a grooming area one day to see what they would charge to do a couple of small touch ups on the girls like trim their nails, the hair in their paw pads, etc... Before I got anything out of my mouth the girl behind the desk said 'Hello...just a minute' so I waited...she said something to another girl who looked at me and went into the back room. The first girl came to the register and said 'Taffy really looks cute'...I thought she was talking to someone behind me so I stepped to the side...realizing no one else was there but us I gave a confused, half smile look to her as the other girls in the grooming area were all saying 'Oh, Taffy looks so cute, she really does!'. The first girl started ringing something on the register and finally gave me a price...which was interesting because I was only in there for questions. Maybe I'm a little slow on the uptake or something but that's when it dawned on me...they were going to give me someone's dog and I had never even been in there before! I looked at her and said 'I'm not here to pick up a dog, I'm just here to ask a couple of questions'...she said 'Are you sure?' and I replied 'Well, yes!' Finally the groomer walks out and the girl at the register says 'Taffy's Mom is here, would you bring her out?' The girl looked at her and said 'That isn't Taffy's Mom'. I was horrified! Those girls were going to give me someone's dog...if I had been a dishonest person I could have paid the grooming fee and walked out with precious little Taffy...I've heard she's really cute but she isn't mine!

This got me thinking...and angry at the thought that someone could have been heart broken that day and may have never seen their precious Taffy again.

I thought about it and wonder why the bigger groomers don't have some system like a color coded tag on an elastic band that matches one with your dog or a picture of you and your dog in their file or something to ensure the right dog is going to the right owner.

I'm glad I'm the one who walked in that day because I'm honest to a fault but if it had been someone else...who knows what might have happened. This has only cemented my mind in the fact that I will never use a groomer in a commercial setting. The groomer I last had for the girls did them in her home and she took no other dogs during that time. If I can't do their grooming myself I'll take tem back to her even though she is 85 miles away now...I can always shop or visit family while I wait.