Probably mentioned before, Kaia is now showing big signs of losing hind power as the dysplasia kicks in more (thankfully no pain, or any real mobility issues yet) but added to a bit of wobble in her front paws on a walk if she doesn't plant them right and pay attention, she can't make the jump to get in the car anymore.
Long story short, missed her first groom of the year and we were looking into mobile groomers, it just took a bit longer than we hoped lol. Found one with decent reviews, albeit not many as he's a newbie and only been going for 12 odd months. He asked all the questions we thought should be asked, and he had the answers for ours without hesitation.
Having booked him for tomorrow, he was even happy enough to offer that if she was too nervous with him being new, he wouldn't charge, he'd just use it as a 15/20 minute introduction and we'd rebook where she'd be a little bit calmer.
Anyway, we pulled it forward a day as he had a cancellation, and having covered her manner, behaviour, age etc and that the groomers at Pets at Home needed about an hour or just over, as they described as being a three coat (as opposed to Ebbie's two coat who they could sort in 40/45 mins) he quoted an hour price (£40 cheaper as he included things they charged separately) with a tiny uplift if he needed the additional half hour if her coats were that troublesome.
For a start we were expecting more expensive as he was mobile, purely on the basis mobile vets are more expensive lol So that was a nice surprise.
Anyway, turned up at 12pm, 15/20 minutes getting to know us, refreshing his memory on what we'd said about Kaia, which was mostly him giving her a non medical look over, and having a feel around, double checking and then relating it to how he'd do things in the van to help her. Obviously plenty of fusses for both in the process, and whilst it's a tiny thing, our drive has a 4/5% incline that he'd parked on. Even though he had belly support straps, he insisted on levelling the van out to ensure it made things easier for her.
Probably started to groom her at about 12.30. Being a newbie, and given the time I spent searching up on him, apparently I was the nervous one - but at around 2.30ish Claire had to go out to find out what was going on.
His floor was covered in fur, but knowing she'd missed a groom and we'd been through winter, he had given her three fresh baths and whilst drying her, when he'd done the undercarriage, he took the straps off so she could sit or lie down to rest more, and he had to give her roughly four odd dry cycles from the sounds of things before he was fully happy.
We got her back at about 3 - 3.15ish, and after he'd cleaned the van, we got a full debrief, including him catching the quick on one nail as he couldn't avoid if he cut the nail properly (fully cleaned and treated). He told us about her sore paw pads (we had known (age, weight), but hadn't mentioned) so I was impressed by that, and it reminded him he meant to give a balm - which he then quickly did. He also then made a few comments about where she really likes to be fussed, and he nailed them.
To say I was impressed does him a disservice. He didn't ask for the extra we'd agreed on (he didn't ask for more either, I assume he was happy to swallow the extra time because he chose to let her better relax and take things slower).
She came back dryer than ever before, she came back more relaxed than ever before (she used to hide for 30 mins/an hour away from everyone to calm down - no mistreatment, just exhaustion and didn't want to be bugged). In the debrief, our aloof bugger kept walking back to him for extra fusses, she took to him that well and he had to deal with the youngest hogging his other arm as well.
Safe to say he was tipped above what we agreed (not as much as we wanted but we don't carry cash lol), Ebbie is already booked in for next month and then we'll standardise dates for both of them.
Anyone in the Tamworth area, I would highly recommend.
He even brought our bin up when he'd finished lol
