December 8, 2008 Bathing Beauty


Bathing Beauty

As a groomer, I use professional equipment to make my job easier. One of them is called a “bathing beauty” which is essentially a sump pump that recirculates the water and shampoo to get the dogs squeaky clean without hand scrubbing them. It also massages the dogs and they all really like it, even if they don’t particularly like to have a bath. This handy machine saves water, shampoo, time, and most of all my hands and body. I’ve had it for about 5 years and frankly, I’m spoiled.
Trying to bathe dogs without it after all these years is like heating up stuff without a microwave, how do you do that again? I feel completely inept at grooming without it. You know that feeling, you don’t know what you have ‘til it’s gone, well I’m in serious mourning over losing my friend the bathing beauty. I called the company that makes them and they offered to perform an autopsy on it to see if they could resurrect it with some new parts, but I need it NOW! I ordered a new one and it should be here any time, but I can assure you that isn’t fast enough!

Friends,
We gather today to say goodbye to a dear friend, the bathing beauty. She was a workhorse, tirelessly spraying the gunk, hair, and debris from hundreds of dogs and saving her owner’s hands and body.
She never complained, or whined about her job. She withstood the rigors of daily shampoos and conditioners, bodifiers and yes, even dyes. She comforted the old, stressed and ill and made them feel loved and massaged.
She made every dog feel like a million bucks and go out of the salon looking and feeling wonderful.
She faithfully murdered flea vermin and protected the doggies from their bites. She was a faithful companion.
She showed her users a better way to bathe pets and did it with grace and style. She was easy to operate; even a child could do it. She made time fly as she worked happily beside us day after day. She never complained when you stepped on her bubble, and she happily emptied the tub with speed.
She made The Groom Room Pet Spa a better place and she will be dearly missed.
She was a giver, and she has even sacrificed herself and become an organ donor, selflessly donating her parts so that other bathing beauties in the future may have needed parts when the time comes.
She leaves behind her owner Sandy and her sons Drew and Lane in tears over her sudden and unexpected demise.
Let us all bow our heads and pray....
Dear Lord, thank you for the bathing beauty and all she has done for us. We pray you will keep her spirit in your loving arms, and we pray the UPS man comes quickly and safely with her replacement. Though no other bathing beauty could possibly take her place, we know You realize how inept we are at bathing dogs without her and don't want to ruin our reputation, not to mention our hands, arms and bodies. Please get that UPS man here quickly! Amen.

Well, I think after talking to other groomers online, that I killed it. I didn’t know you could take it apart and clean out the insides of it. After all, it has a very fine screen on the bottom and ran fine until the other day when it refused to turn on. I’ve never removed the screen and cleaned out the insides or back flushed it, but I run disinfectant through it regularly. Therefore, I’m going to put on my Dr. Frankenstein hat today and see if I can resurrect her myself. I’m sure I can’t do any more damage to it than what’s already been done.
The lesson I’ve learned is to do regular maintenance on all my equipment so that these things won’t happen in the future. I’m planning to have a weekly maintenance day to take apart and clean out all the essential equipment in my salon. Maybe that will prevent future funerals.


1 comment:

  1. I dreamed about the poor dead BB last night--the kind of anxiety dream where I was trying to find the parts to fix it.

    Mary Anne in Kentucky, and Stony the blue heeler

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