Fancy turning your dog’s bum into a lion? New trend sees groomers snipping works of art into pets’ fur
An animal salon now offers pet owners the option to shave their pet's hair into strange and unusual shapes
A HAIRDRESSER has decided to make an unusual career move and become a pet groomer who shaves strange designs into people’s pets.
Lee Mei-chen can spend up to three hours cutting and crafting her patterns into the animals, including a teddy bear she trimmed into the fur of a patient dog.
The teddy bear design is one of the more complex in the furry repertoire of the 30-year-old Taiwanese hairdresser turned pet groomer.
In addition to teddy bears, Lee also shaves paw prints, lion faces and characters from Japanese brand Hello Kitty on to animal backs.
Ou Shih-jou, the owner of the salon where Lee works in southern Taiwan, said the quirky pet patterns came from owners wanting something different to the normal summer shave.
The designs determined by the natural assets of the pets and one eye-catching motif involved shaving a spiky spine into the back of a cat, leaving it looking like a stegosaurus.
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"When a cat gets angry, the fur on its back erects, that made us come up with "stegosaurus design"," Ou told Reuters.
"It (makes the cat) look like a small dinosaur. The owners were happy after they came back to see it, thinking it was quite creative."
Ou started up the salon in September and has seen big interest from the public, with the pets posing for pictures before leaving the salon.
"When walking outside, people think it's amazing and magical. Everyone wants to take a photograph and see what kind of styles they came up with," pet owner Kuo Yu-lan said.
Last week, another pooch hit the headlines after a morbidly obese Beagle shed half his body weight in a PAW-dropping transformation.
A year ago, Kale Chips weighed more than SIX STONE and was taken in as a rescue dog because he was so fat he could barely walk.
Luckily dedicated staff at the Happy Dog Barkery, in Chicago, were on hand to monitor the 6st 2lb plump pooch’s diet and up his exercise – to include long walks and daily swims.
Kale Chips lost nearly half his body weight (2st 13lb) and now tips the scales at a healthy 3st 2lbs.
Happily, the eight-year-old mutt has reached his goal size, and improved his health, just in time for summer.