Messing Up Dakota's Fur

So, we had an exciting weekend with lots of trips down to visit friends.

Saturday night, I came back after one of those trips to find Havelock and Grig playing games. Kevin was soon involved with the fun as well, so I decided to clip the dog again.

The lack of fur around our house since the last clipping has been incredible! We still occasionally find a long piece, but the vacuum has sucked up most of it. I think we might keep her fur this length permanently. Last time, I clipped her fur to 1/2 of an inch, and  this time I decided to go even further. I wasn't sure how short to cut it, but I found the shortest clipper guard I could find and began to shave right down the middle of her back.

That was a mistake.

It turns out that that particular guard was actually a guard for shaving, not clipping. It went right to the skin. It kept getting clogged and I decided to go a little longer. I ended up using a 3/8 inch guard instead.

So, her fur looks great now, except for a long three inch stripe down her back where the fur is shorter. It doesn't look that bad, but I still wish I hadn't done it. However, how do you learn if you don't make mistakes?

It is interesting though, that every time I look at her, my eyes first look at the shorter stripe on her back. Other people don't even notice it is there, but sometimes it's the only thing I see.

I feel like we're like that sometimes with our mistakes.

To us, they seem to be glaringly obvious and we might feel like everyone is staring at them. However, if we stand back a few feet we can either notice how small the impact truly is, or see how it has affected us positively in the long run.

Look for the good in yourself and in others. The rest of her fur looks fantastic if I can just learn to look beyond the small stripe of error. The best part is, it will grow out, and then know one will ever know that I messed up.

Except that I just posted this on the internet, so it will last forever.

Be careful what you post too.

See? You can barely see it!