There are times in life (sigh) when you just have to confront necessity and task yourself to perform jobs you'd far prefer to ignore. A case in point? The agony both we and our twin devils experience now that fall has ensconced its season in the forest and the wonderful wildflowers whose fresh presence so entranced us have developed those nasty little burrs of all sizes and grasping capabilities that stick to the hair of our two little poodles.

Truth is, though it doesn't seem all that long ago since they were groomed, their hair grows so quickly it's downright overwhelming and for the last little while they've looked like small black ragamuffins. The longer the hair, we reasoned, the more they attracted burrs to fasten deep within their haircoats making it difficult to find them and remove them.

Jackie (left) -- Jillie (right)

Jackie and Jillie haven't much enjoyed the clean-up operations that follow our daily jaunts on the forest trails where they're free to poke their little heads here and there and enjoy the freedom to pick up countless burrs. Sometimes they're large ones and truly wretched, sending their sharp spurs deep enough into their legs that they're aware of their presence and try themselves to remove them only to have them re-fasten from leg to muzzle. Their ear flaps sometimes come away with a ball of thistles.

So the two little imps may have come to the conclusion that their former friends (us) have turned into their tormentors, prying and pulling and snipping and grasping, exposing the poor little mutts to a level of discomfort newly discovered and to be avoided if at all possible. Not possible.

In any event, out came the grooming equipment; scissors of all sizes and levels of sharpness, to be carefully wielded with the determination to make the little beggars aesthetically presentable and in tidying them up make them less vulnerable to picking up those burrs. An additional problem is when they happen to haplessly step on sap covering fallen cones, leaving their footpads sap-covered which then glues tiny stones and burrs deep into their pads. Removing those is a real challenge.

The reasoning went that grooming would help. At least a little? They'd come away from our woodland ramble less full of prickles. We hoped. They'd have to suffer the horrors of being groomed, a process they don't much care for, nor do I particularly, since convincing them to submit to the irritation of being 'still' for a relatively prolonged period of time to enable me to snip away at their hair is a good thing, represents a lost cause. Even when I told them in a tone I felt was rather convincing, that their suffering under my scissors-administration would prevent daily anguish over burr-removals.

Finally, it was done. They had been reduced in size by at least a half. Tubby little Jillie after her grooming quite resembled skinny Jackie. You'd think she'd be pleased. And Jackie looks so reduced in size with his hair cut that it's possible he just might disappear altogether. Actually, it's made it a little more difficult to distinguish them from one another at first glance; though there are, to us at least, physical differentials we're aware of that no one else is.

Our venture into the forest was pleasant as usual. Hotter than usual, as well. Higher humidity linked with sun and elevated temperature and an absence of wind made for a fairly warm hour or so on our usual circuit. The terrible twins are always on the lookout for squirrels, worth a short and swift spurt of energy until the squirrel disappears up a tree trunk and they're left puzzled. We did come across a tiny chipmunk, and though we saw the lovely little creature, they hadn't noticed it, though it stood a few feet away from Jackie for the longest time, each on opposite sides of a large old pine.

And did the grooming work? Like a charm. We were surprised and extremely grateful on our return home to discover, when we cleaned up their little paws that nothing was stuck in their pads today, and nor was there even one burr making its home in their haircoat. Another bonus? They look pretty spiffy.

And that nice, groomed look should least at least -- a day or two, at most.