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Nelly is 12 years old and has lupus. She gets a little stubborn when she's being worked on, so as
Shayne Chambliss clips her nails,
Jenny Yost gently holds her head and upper torso.
"Good girl, good girl," coos Yost as she strokes Nelly's reddish-brown fur.
Nelly is an Afghan-chow mix and has been a longtime customer of Waggin' Tails pet grooming, at 4223 S. Broadway in Englewood, where she's been going for the past 10 years.
Yost, Waggin' Tails manager and one of the two groomers there, said 90 percent of the shop's clientele are returning customers.
Yost says caring for animals has always been in her blood. The 25-year-old Littleton resident's mother was a pet groomer for 22 years and Yost said she basically started when she was 6.
"I love seeing how happy the dogs are when they leave," Yost said. She has her own posse of pets: two dogs, two cats and a fish.
On Feb. 28, Yost worked on another regular,
Elijah, a black standard poodle. After grooming him, which can include brushing out the undercoat, a haircut, nail clipping and ear cleaning, she turns Elijah over to her sister,
Amber Linnatz, 35, who works as the bather.
After she's done bathing him, Yost will have "the joy of de-matting him." It's been three months since Elijah's last visit to Waggin' Tails.
However, though Yost loves her job, she said it takes "a lot of patience" to be a pet groomer.
"You can't be too rough, but you can't be too soft either," she said. "It's hard to find good groomers; there are some who are just in it for the money and that's how animals get hurt."
On average, up to 30 pets a day come through the shop. The pets have ranged from dogs and cats to rabbits, ferrets and even rats.
"Any small animal that doesn't bite," Yost said.
No matter the size, Yost, who's been at Waggin' Tails for eight years, said at the Christian-based shop, the employees strive to treat "every creature as God would've intended."
Yost said she's made many personal connections through grooming pets. She recalled a golden retriever she used to clean who had passed away.
"I cried for two weeks," she said, tearing up a little as she spoke. "You grow attached to these dogs; you start when they're two months old and groom till they're 18."