Finally, the weather co-operated and we saw our opportunity to groom our old girl. In all her eighteen and a half years she has never been professionally groomed. We have always preferred to do this ourselves, rather than farm her out to a professional groomer, finding a brush and several sizes of sharp scissors would do the job nicely.

Trouble was, the older she became, the less amenable she became to being handled. As she approached her eighteenth birthday she was more and more reluctant to submit to the process. She had never been happy about having her paws tidied up, much less her muzzle. She is not a pure-bred, sharing genes from a Poodle and a Pomeranian parent. But a Poodle's hair has a tendency to grow and she has always been a healthy dog, and her hair always grows quickly. Her neat and tidy appearance quickly receded as her hair grew progressively longer and then she would look so unkempt we really had to take remediation steps.

The older she got the more upset she became about the process. She would struggle against the indignity of being held in place, of a pair of scissors being wielded for the purpose of shedding her masses of hair to make her look more presentable. In fact, once the procedure was done with, it was clear she felt more comfortable with her hair less prone to obtruding where it was not wanted; over her eyes, around her muzzle into her mouth. Best of all, because she is a water dog, she enjoyed her baths. Less so, however, as she became older.

And it was imperative to dry her as quickly as possible and keep her warm during the drying process. We finally had a warm spring day with ample sunshine so she could be held, wrapped in a towel at first, outside, with the sun warming her until drying was complete. She was content with the outcome, and so were we.