I was very fortunate early in my grooming career
to have a local breeder offer to coach me on my Bichon grooming.
Ida McNerney had the cutest, small, fun little dogs with great coats,
and she helped me a lot in distinguishing my Bichon grooming from the Poodle.
It was also a fabulous introduction to the breed.
Many years later, I did a free grooming on a little white
dog that had been rescued in a fishing village in Mexico. He was
such a mess it was impossible to identify his breed, and who would expect
a purebred dog in a Mexican fishing village? I so admired the skinny
little boy with big brown eyes as I groomed him and saved as much coat
as possible. Because he had dreadful matted staining on his face,
he ended up with a little poodle face with donut whiskers. The people
who rescued him thought he was a poodle! Only later, as the face
and body coat grew out were we to realize that mistaken identification.
He was 100% Bichon Frise! The little dog did not work out in the home of
his rescuers, so he was tearfully brought to me to place him in another
home. After one day with me, he was mine mine mine, for life.
We named him “Gringo”. Later, when he began writing on the Internet,
he named himself “El Gringo”, as if he were the "The One". That dog
had an ego! ("El Gringo" was not just another little white dog. See him pictured below, ready to party in his purple coiffure.)
