Agape gets washed. and then we need a shower.

this is Agape.
before Saturday, she hadn't had a bath. ever.
she's part Black Lab, part Husky [we think], and that Husky side of her has won over in the decision as to whether she'd like water or not. she doesn't. she'll run from it, whine about it, paw at the mean one who stands at the other end of the hose, trying to rinse some of the dirty off of her [read:me].
and the Husky part of her had made her a little, well, husky. Agape used to be a fatso until Mom put her on a little diet so she wouldn't keep hurting her knees.
no one in our family wanted to get the duty of lugging fatty Agape into the tub and holding all 1200 pounds of her down while another shampooed her dirt-filled, oil-filled, probably poop-filled fur.
no thank you.

so these factors all lead to the fact that she was a very dirty Agape for the past 8 years of her life.
[i know, i know, we're evil for not washing her before that. you don't need to point that out to me.]

but this weekend, my sister and i decided to change that!

i made Gap [that's what we call her. Gap like a long A "gohp", not a Rochester A "gaaayyyyp", just to clear that up] a grooming appointment, but then we forgot her rabies paperwork and the dumb people wouldn't do it, so we had to miss that.
so we sat in the car for for.ev.er calling every single gosh darn dog groomer in Rochester, but all of them were booked solid for the day.
and we already had Gap in the backseat of my car, bribed with treats and sweet voices, so i was not about to give up.

finally, one place said that while they didn't have any appointments for professional grooming open that day, they did have Do It Yourself stations, complete with a big tub, a pressure hose, lots of fancy shampoos, and a power dryer.
dear lord, a Do It Yourself station.
so jessa and i decided that we hadn't showered that day anyways, we might as well get down and dirty and just get the gunk off of the dang dog.

pre-wash Gap and I were both so optimistic about the whole thing.

but unsurprisingly, the aprons they provided did not keep jessa and i dry for very long.

there was lots of shaking off right in our faces, lots of holding her down so the other one could do what we had to do, lots of laughter.

also, lots and lots of gross shedded fur.

if someone had been recording us, i bet you could make millions sending it into America's Funniest Home Videos.

Agape gave us a run for our money.

but we won in the end!
a pitiful looking, wet Agape got 3 shampoos, a very lovely smelling conditioning, an ear cleaning, toenail clipping [not by us, praise the lord], and a power dry that she did not enjoy one bit.
in all, the process took us 2 hours.
and we ended up smelling more like wet dog than she did.

but gosh darn it, she's clean!
now when we take her to the groomers [hopefully sooner than another 8 years], they won't judge us or her for a coat of oily fur inches thick.
i mean we could always just do it ourselves again, but i'm not sure anyone could pay us enough to do that.
am i right, jessa?
let's just say neither of us are going to become professional pet groomers anytime soon.



although we did do a kick ass job.
just look at the shiny coat.