I can see clearly now ...

... what my dogs look like ... and they can see clearly now, period.

Melvie Koleen needs to have the hair trimmed out of her poor blind eyes ... but we leave her coat fairly long and augment with sweaters from now until June!

Meanwhile, six-pound Helen will probably end up with a sweater, too ... and she, too, needs the hair trimmed away from HER poor blind eyes...

Maudie the Moose just needed an overall shave.  Unlike Melvie and Helen, she and Rosalie are almost always too warm.





 

We lost the poof on top (Hallelujah!  I can see her eyes again!) and had them trim her tail short, too, in case she ends up playing with her new puppy pal in the burrs -- I mean, woods.

And finally, Rosalie the topiary.  The object here is to cut her rotund little body short, thus helping to keep her a comfortable temperature.  The fur on her little stick legs is left a little longer to help balance out her round little body.  

Then she gets a little "moustache" to camoflage her tusks.  Rosalie only has about five teeth, but four of them are truly massive canines.  

However, there is nothing a little snipping and Rosie's irrepressible joie de vivre can't overcome. 

Dogs never lie about love ... but everything else ....?

Jeffrey Masson wrote a wonderful book called "Dogs Never Lie About Love."

About other stuff, though?

Take Helen Anne, for instance. Friday afternoon, she was on three legs. Still arking happily, still wagging her tiny tail, but holding one of her hind legs up tight to her body.

Since she seemed basically cheerful, and I could ascertain no blood or shattered bone, I decided to give it a few days.

Saturday: three legs.
Sunday: three legs.
Monday: three legs.

So I called the vet Monday morning, made an appointment for 9:45, raced home to bring her in: she's not only on four legs, she's hopping up and down on her hind ones with delight that I'd come home.

As my father used to say, "They don't give Academy Awards for performances in the kitchen."