I wasn't sure where to put this. I started in the Sick and Injured folder but decided maybe I was going overboard and it was not really an emergency but rather a predicament -- a sticktight predicament!
My poor Annie has been blessed with the most precious tiny face that is heart stopping it is so gorgeous, but......she has the hair from "h, e, double hockeysticks!" I guess it is cotton or a combination as the hair on her head is silky and entirely different from the hair on her body. I kept thinking it was just puppy hair and would change but she passed the year mark in July and still she has this horrible hair. She is actually from the lines of Ben and my late female Sadie. They all had silky hair. I did not think about cotton hair just cropping up like this. I would not even call it cotton, more like the finest down. Maybe she is part duck!
Now for the actual Predicament -- we were walking around the yard and I had not mowed the very back part as soon as I should have. There's 2 acres back there and I leave some of it natural. When we all came back in, her entire underside & legs were covered with sticktights! If you are not familiar with these things, they are seed pods that are green - sometimes brownish green, flat, not prickly, but with some magical power to adhere to whatever they stick to. Well, not whatever, as Ben came in without a one but poor Annie was covered and my socks had several. I've been plucking these things for 2 days and they seem to multiply when I stop for a while. They are an amazing hitchhiking seed! You cannot believe how strong a bond they can create with the host hair. Combined with some mats I've been working on, I feel like her coat is a lost cause and will need a shave down. Wish this had happened in the summer and not the Fall as the temps are falling in the evening here.
To tell the truth, the reason I have been working so diligently at removing these things is that I am embarrassed to bring her in to the groomer like this. She does not look like the purebred Yorkshire Terrier she is. She looks like some farm mutt allowed to wallow in the woods! She looks like a Blue & Tan & Green Yorkie! I am sure the groomer will look at me with some form of disapproval and I will just hate that! Ah well, I am not going to fix this on my own, I need professional help and if it means having someone look down their nose at me with disapproving sneers, so be it. I will just have to take my comeuppance!
Anyone have any secret for removing these sticktights? I know I will be going out to try to find the offending plants and dig them up by the roots! I think it might be time that we moved into a traditional suburb home that is easier to maintain and my babies will be safe from all of the critters and vegetation enemies we have out here.
Poor, poor Annie -- a face to launch a fleet of sailing ships but the hair of .... well whatever has horrible hair, eider down, maybe. Luckily I have a tote full of dog clothes in the craft room. I will get out some sweaters and take her to the groomers to be sheared like a lamb. Sad.....sad......sad......I should have been more careful! Cursed sticktights!!!
I just read that olive oil soaked into the "fur" could help loosen them and they could be brushed out. Hmmm...might try that yet. I guess it could be worse, they could be cockleburs! OUCH! At least sticktights don't hurt.