Hattie's journey began with a 100 mile trip - she had been dumped in the desert to fend for herself.

Hatti is either a goldendoodle or a labradoodle.

She has beautiful long lashes and came to us with kennel cough, a coat that was so felted that it had to be completely removed, hundreds of foxtails - many of which were completely embedded and infected. [Oh and of course it goes without saying she also had lots of fleas!]

To say her coat was filthy is an understatement and the fragrance was nothing to write home about either.

Hattie is 26 inches tall at the shoulder and she currently weighs ONLY 50 pounds. She should weigh at least 60 pounds if not 65!

After an hour of trying to shave Hattie her foster mother realized that she was in over her head when it came to grooming/shaving Hattie. Thankfully a generous 8 p.m. offer of help from Kathy Arnold was received and very gratefully accepted.

Hattie's coat needed to be taken completely off. As Kathy gently and carefully shaved Hattie's coat 'peeled' off in one piece.

Kathy is an EXTREMELY experienced and proficient groomer, even still it was not until the wee hours of the morning that Kathy finished - the first rough stripping off of Hattie's coat.

Even before Kathy started the process of shaving her we could see that Hattie was in pain. All four of her feet were badly swollen and riddled with infected foxtail tracks.

Look carefully all those little 'flecks' are foxtails.

If you would like a closer look please double click on the picture to the left.

THEN hit the back button on your browser to return to this 'journal'.

In some spots Hattie had been so uncomfortable that she had literally torn off her own coat! Hundreds of foxtails had penetrated her coat and the process of BEGINNING to pick them out kept her foster mother busy until dawn.

Hattie will be trimmed more neatly later -- this first shaving was just to get rid of as much of the bulk of the coat as possible with out further aggravating of the surface foxtails. It would not have been fair to Hattie to put her through any thing else that first night so it was agreed that she would go home with her temporary 'do'.

Kathy - we can't thank you enough!

P.S. Thanks to both Kathy and her assistant Stewart for coming up with Hattie's name!

After a full day of rest on Tuesday which included lots of good food and water, Hattie was taken to Dr. Bradley Patterson on Wednesday.

Both Brad's vet tech assistant Glenda and his wife Madeline Patterson worked beside Dr. Patterson picking and squeezing and pulling countless foxtails while Brad started the process of surgically removing the embedded and infected ones.