My family, including my four fur children, was and continues to be displaced by the Eaton fire. My…read morefamily was forced to evacuate in early January and, frankly, it has been a very difficult time dealing with insurance, adjusters, and lawyers, and also trying to find appropriate housing for me, my husband, and our four animals--now three, as we have finally concluded that one we will never see one of our cats again.
We lost a great deal of property to recent events and have had to expand a lot of money to replace only those things that we need immediately to get day to day. You would be surprised what you don't miss until it's gone. It has been especially difficult because we have a young male border collie, a nine-year-old rescue, and two cats (now one). The border collie puppy (Rhyse's Pieces) was a handful before the unprecedented destruction of the wind/firestorm so you can imagine how things have gone since.
I was able to get our puppy into Petco grooming soon after the evacuation to get all the ash, soot, and particulates out of his coat. However, because my temporary housing situation is not really appropriate for our needs and is not set up for dogs, our puppy got out a few times almost immediately after the wash at Petco and must have jumped into a few dumpsters before returning to me. For the reasons already mentioned, my husband also has had to live separately in order to be within reasonable distance of his work while I am living elsewhere with the dogs. As a result I've had to grapple with the dogs by myself, which has been even more difficult due to my rheumatoid arthritis and other conditions, the symptoms of which have become much more severe due to this stress of our situation. It is really not realistic for me to attempt to bathe the border collie in my current state. The last time my husband and I bathed him, it took us almost an hour just to wash him because of his long double coat, and it took almost two hours to dry him.
We are not opposed to doing this ourselves, we just weren't in a position to do on short notice, and Rhyse was incredibly filthy--I mean, truly disgusting and so smelly. I reached out to Joseph at Royal Spa Mobile Pet grooming and explained to him the situation and asked him for an estimate. Not only was Joseph able to accommodate us on very short notice, he offered to give Rhyse a bath free of charge even though they normally charge at least $150 for a dog of Rhyse's size and coat.
I did insist on giving him a hefty tip but my family really appreciates his generosity considering the stress and expenses we have been incurring. It is immensely encouraging to us and I am so thankful for businesses like this.
Rhyse came out of Joseph's van looking and smelling like flowers. He is so soft, we can't stop snuggling him. Could not recommend this business more.