Groomer finds the beauty in matted shelter dogs

Pat Hickey's dog Angel was in a sad state. The 16-year-old Affenpinscher had a mishap at a groomer's that left him scissor and brush wary.

"For a year, I couldn't take my little dog to a groomer because he'd try to bite them," Hickey said.

Hickey's son suggested Jennifer Day at Hair of the Dog Pet Spa & Dog Wash, 3310 S. Jones Blvd., Suite N.

"He wouldn't let anyone touch him," Hickey said. "And she's just like a dog whisperer. I was in tears."

"She had been to every grooming shop in town," Day said of Hickey. "And she took him to a vet, and the vet said it would be $200 to put him to sleep and do his grooming."

Angel still bites sometimes, but he never nibbles on Day.

"The first time he was here, he hadn't been able to be groomed in so long he was blind because the gunk on his eyes covered them," Day said. "And I just whispered to him, that nothing bad was going to happen. And I told him, 'I love you, Angel.' He likes the kind baby talk. And a lot of them, the older ones especially, they respond to lyrical, sweet baby talk. It relaxes them, and they'll let you groom them."

Angel isn't even close to the hardest case Day has seen. She reserves time in her busy schedule to groom dogs for the Nevada Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals. Doing rescue work, Day helps animals who are matted messes, often abused and abandoned, prepare for adoption.

Day said, frequently, shelter staff will bring in an animal so in need of a groom, they can't even tell what it is. She sees them all as diamonds in the rough, just waiting for a chance to shine.

"Sometimes they don't know what they've got," Day said. "A lot of these are pulled from The Animal Foundation off the kill list. Most of these were going to be killed, and there was no need."

She pointed out a prime example, Milan, a little dog who came in with overgrown tangled hair.

"They didn't know what this was," Day said. "And I'm like, 'You've got a beautiful powderpuff Chinese Crested, adopt it out for a nice, hefty fee because those are valuable.' "

Poodles, bichons and more come in head down, unwilling to make eye contact and leave head high, rejuvenated outside and, as Day explains it, inside, too.

"You wouldn't believe how much it changes them," she said. "Sometimes you can't even tell it's the same dog."

As Day flipped through before and after photos on her smartphone, she recalled some of the hardest yet most rewarding challenges.

One little dog's owners, an older couple, died. The next of kin, who inherited the house, abandoned the dog in a laundry room, dropping by once a week or so to slide food and water under the door. When the dog was discovered, it was so matted and covered in feces and urine that Day said it took her days to find the beautiful dog beneath.

Danny, a shy puppy less than a year old, wouldn't even leave his crate until late in the afternoon of his arrival. Once he was out, Day calmed him as she tackled the crusted mats of fur. It took four days, working a little at a time, for the Lhasa Apso to emerge.

"You wouldn't know it was the same dog," she said. "He wasn't wagging his tail for the first two days of this."

Day captured the work on camera and compiled it into a half-hour video and a less-than-5-minute video. She said those who watch it on YouTube seem to prefer the longer version. She likes to think some of her viewers are groomers hoping to learn her self-taught techniques for dealing with hard cases. Then maybe more will donate their time to shelters.

Day loves her business, but concerns at home — a newly diagnosed autistic son whom she hopes to get into good schools, and a husband with job prospects far from her Spring Valley location — have convinced her it may be time to pass on her scissors and her mission. Hair of the Dog manager Michael Perez is committed to whisper once Day moves on.

"This is going to continue," Day said. "I'm making sure. Michael really is my right arm right now. I go knowing I started something unique. I have to step back and become a stay-at-home mommy again for the sake of both of our kids. But anywhere I go, there's going to be a shelter that needs this kind of care and concern. And I'm leaving this in good stewardship."

For more on Hair of the Dog, including links to videos of Day's work, visit hotdogspa.com.

— Contact View contributing reporter Ginger Meurer at gmeurer@viewnews.com. Find her on Twitter: @gingermmm.