Scratchings-and-Sniffings

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A Hairy Dilemma Posted: 27 Apr 2010 02:00 PM PDT I'm kind of a frustrated neat freak. One source of my frustration is that I'm married to an artist with an artist's mentality. Part of her creative process is to leave stuff all over the house. I've learned to deal with that, she compensates for this short coming in many other ways. Another source of mess anxiety is none other than Miles. He sheds all over everything. To make things worse he's a Yellow Lab and our floors and furniture are all dark. Take a look at the photo with the little white hairs on the dark Mesquite floor and Plum colored couch. Enough to make a neat freak cringe.   This morning I went to breakfast with my buds and I noticed that my fleece was covered with little white hairs. When I took the camera out of the case this morning to photograph the couch, there were hairs in the camera case. As I type this post there are even hairs on the computer key board. Hair everywhere.   Miles, of course, is the picture of health and his skin and coat are fine and shiny. Labs, and other breeds, just shed a ton. He may be shedding a little more now that we are getting more day light. I would imagine that his undercoat is on the way out.   What to do?   At Blog Paws I met some folks from an outfit called Furminator. They make a line of brushes and hair care products that are supposed to be a great solution to the hair problem. My friend Sue who lives with Allie, another Yellow Lab that has graced these pages, is a big Furminator fan.    As part of Blog Paws I got a deluxe Furminator in my gift bag. This one has a handy button that ejects the wad of hair that has accumulated in the brush. I find that really handy.    I'm just getting started with my Furminator and I must say I can get a scary amount of hair out of Miles in one brushing. The other day I was outside in the street in front of the house brushing him. It's the windy season here and I was simply ejecting the hairballs and watching them roll down the street. Out of sight, out of mind, right?   Well, one of my neighbors from three blocks east came walking up the street laughing. "I was wondering where this was coming from," she said with a smile.   "I've got birds in my yard using Miles hair as nest building material," she informed me. Nice to know it can be recycled in some way. I wonder if I could use it to tie flies for fishing?   Anyway, my plan is to use the Furminator every day for a week and see whether it makes a difference in the household hair load. Considering how much I get each day it would almost have to make a difference. I'll report back next week on my science project.   Speaking of projects you should see my wife's latest. It's all over the living room. And it has Miles hair on it.

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