Before and After

Several weeks ago, my friend Catrin kindly accompanied me to the Hundesalon. Diego needed some grooming. My vet in Mitte gave me the name of a groomer who I thought was nearby. It turned out that this groomer was not as close as I had thought; as the tram passed more and more Stalin-style block apartments, Catrin and I theorized about what the groomer would look like.
'Her name is Missy' Catrin said, drawing on her knowledge of a trend in East Germany to give girls names ending with double consonants and a 'y' sound: Connie, Shelly, Crissie. (Guys had names like Rico-- too cool!).

I guessed that she had true-red hair cut short with a streak of black through it. Catrin added in long laquered nails (I thought that was a stretch because how do you trim a dog with huge shiny acrylic nails.

Who was right? Both of us. She couldn't have been more perfect. The red streak, the acrylic nails. I didn't catch her name, but her dog-- I mean her doppelganger-- was called 'Sissy.'

And how did Diego turn out? He's thrilled with the results. (really, he is so much more himself. He was just too hot in all of that fur this summer. He's back to his playful cuddly self.)

And yes, I am to blame for the big head. It's just that he looks so different when he gets groomed; I think if his face was shaved he would look so different. I like to keep his face as fluffy as possible so that I still recognize him.