I came across a couple of reviews and mentions of the FURminator, particularly in relation to long haired double coated breeds- hello little shelties of the world- and curiosity got the better of me: this was also just after my mum had melted into a pile of emotional goo about the "huge amount of dog hair all over the floor", so when said reviews and mentions included "reduces shedding" I figured if it'd help get my mum off my back and the hair on the dog instead of the floor all the better.
Then I saw the price tag and I just about died.
Eighty plus bucks for a brush. A brush.
It'd have to do something amazing- more amazing than strip a poodle worth of fur out of a dog- for me to fork out that much cash; I don't mind spending oodles on my pets, but keeping in mind I've got a nine hundred dollar dog to buy, another crate, maybe a flight for the puppy depending on what happens with driving down and whatnot, food, a spey, vaccinations, multiple collars and leads (because I have bad leash karma and they will be chewed within five seconds of first using them), fencing and star pickets- for a start- along with keeping the rest of my pets well looked after on my rather modest pay means I have to be realistic. And eighty bucks for a single brush just isn't so.
Of course I ran to eBay in a mad panic, hoping to maybe come across a secondhand one I could snatch up for a fraction of the cost and found dozens of the damn things for no more than $16, new, still in the packets, with free postage and handling. I've ordered a medium one and I should have it by the end of the week at the very latest. Although it apparently isn't as effective on shorter coated breeds, I'm going to subject poor Charlie to my first fumbling attempts at line brushing once it comes and see what it does. I won't have to use it on the sheltie until she's older and got her full coat in, but practice makes perfect and it ain't ever hurt anyone- though Charlie may object to that.
I've also got my fingers crossed that my first ever international order- Sheltie Talk (the breed bible and a book all scared newbie sheltie parents need to have) and the Illustrated Guide to Sheltie Grooming (since I am such a bumbling fool when it comes to the more intricate art form of grooming long coats)- arrives safely sometime in the near future; I had to order from Alpine Publishers in America since both books apparently don't exist in Australia. How handy. Both books are quite cheap but the postage is nearly $30 which boosted it up quite a lot.
My poor, poor bank account. It's had a couple of hefty sugeries of late and it seems that just when it starts to recover I'm back in there with scrubs and a scalpel.
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