decorative pups

As if the "NCIS" marathon on TV hadn't sufficiently distracted me, I found my way to Apartment Therapy, one of my favorite websites. For some reason, I love this room: 

It's not necessarily a room I'd want in my own "someday" house -- which, while imaginary, still has a finite number of rooms and therefore a finite number of design options. Gotta make 'em all count. But I love the color palette, the modern/retro mix, the coordinated pillows... and the pups are cute too, although not as cute as mine.

Well, my pup isn't as cute as usual right now, thanks to yet another unfortunate experience at the kennel. We have been through four groomers in less than a year, and I finally settled on one after she followed my instructions to an almost-T. Unfortunately, that was three fur-cuts ago. The fur-cut before last was 50/50 in terms of my satisfaction, and this one was truly a disaster. The kind woman who groomed Ruby called to inform me she was ready for pick-up, and couldn't help but gush about how "adorable" my doggy looked and how pleased she was sure I'd be. So, hey, I wasn't worried. I'd left specific instructions for Ruby's 'do, the main point of which was that we hate the typical Yorkie and Shih Tzu styles. Please, no shaved fur 'round the eyes and on the snout, makes my dear dog look like a creature from "Star Wars" (Wookiee, Ewok, I don't really know the difference). Also, please leave at least half the length on her body because, baby, it's cold outside. Don't want to have a Ruby-cicle on ma' hands.

The groomer apparently listened to everything I said, but left out the crucial don't part of every detail. So this is the Ruby I retrieved from the groomer:

!!!!!!!

And with a bow?! Jesus. I was not pleased and, as you can see, neither was Rubes. She isn't the pink bow kinda gal. I am especially depressed when I compare her current look with recent pictures, for example:

Bah, so cute!

There is at least a slight improvement from pick-up day to now: immediately after we got Ruby home, I went to work trimming the turkey-warbler-of-a-chin down to size. Despite the short cut on her body, they left her tail a giant plume and, worse, her face nearly untrimmed (exception: around the eyes, top layer near her snout). She looked like a pathetic lion.

I need to learn how to groom Ruby myself, it seems. Or maybe I should do what people do when they want specific haircuts, and take a picture of Ruby at her best with me to the groomer next time...

Depressed Ruby looking over my shoulder this evening. Her ears are burning, she knows I'm writing about her.