The photo shows what Kona is looking like these days. She needed a haircut, and she is so disabled with bad hip joints, that we didn’t want to take her to the dog groomer, because previously when we did, after the long ordeal, she was in rather bad shape after so much standing. I finally broke down and decided to just cut her hair myself. While the results don’t look wonderful, it’s not like we were planning to enter her in a dog show, where her appearance matters.
To make it easy on Kona, I have just been cutting her hair just a bit at a time, stopping when she begins to get restless. I am just using regular scissors to do the job. What you see in the photo is the result of two sessions.
In the past I had a herd of Angora goats (the source of mohair). When I started out with the Angoras, I would shear them myself using a pair of shears, but it took me about two hours to do each goat. Luckily, as my herd grew, I was able to get the sheep shearer who would come to the Robson Valley to shear the sheep, to also shear my goats. It only took him about 20 minutes to do a goat.
I was surprised as I worked on Kona, just how similar the hair on her back resembled the beautiful mohair I used to get from the goats. The strands were silky, fine, white, and wavy, just like the mohair.
While her haircut so far makes her look rather strange and misshapen, I am sure she is beginning to feel more comfortable not having the “shag-rug” coat she has been having to lug around in.
You can see my paintings at: davidmarchant2.ca
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