Ever since Lisa was a young gal she always had the love for animals.  The family dog Patches was her best friend, especially when things were bothering Lisa.  Lisa can remember a time when her family lived on a small hobby farm.  She had found a crippled chicken and watched it for a while.  Lisa noticed one day that the other chickens were picking on the crippled chicken.  Lisa thought she would separate the chickens just so she could try to give the crippled chicken a chance to survive.  After a time with the separation from the other chickens, Lisa went in to feed and water the crippled chicken and found that the other chickens had found a way in and killed it.  But one thing accorded to Lisa while caring for that chicken was her love for animals.  She had the childhood dream to become a Veterinarian.  As Lisa grew older and knew what she needed for grades in order fulfill her dream, she come to realize that she couldn't make the grades for it.  At that time she didn't know what she would do for a career.

 

Lisa was asked one day by her aunt if she would be interested in helping out working in a full line pet store.  Lisa's eyes were reopened to another world of animal care.  She learned a lot about Birds, Fish, Dogs, Cats, Rodents, and Reptiles.  Then she had periodically watched the Pet Groomer that had worked in a small section of the basement in the pet store.  The pet groomer was expecting her second child and was looking for another groomer to help out while she was on maternity leave.  She couldn't find anyone and asked Lisa if she would like to learn.  Lisa took her up on the offer but time wasn't in the grooming owners favor.  There was another groomer that worked in the grooming shop and that girl was supposed to help teach Lisa but she didn't.  After a time the groomer was leaving and moving into a shop of her own.  Lisa still had loyalty to her aunt so she stayed there working in the pet store. Lisa's aunt made the suggestion of continuing to groom pets.  Her aunt helped purchase all the grooming equipment that Lisa would need to continue to groom.  Lisa mainly learned how to groom some short legged terriers, the rest of the breeds Lisa had to learn on her own.  So she became a self-taught groomer.

 

Lisa tried several times to work for small shops in the past.  While visiting her mother Lisa noticed that her mom and dad's English Springer had an ear infection and made the suggestion to get the dog into the vet for care.  Her mother called, made the appointment and told them that her daughter thought it was an ear infection.  The receptionist asked how she would know about that and Lisa's mother told them that Lisa was a pet groomer.  They asked if Lisa was looking for work or if she was working.  Lisa's mother told them that she was not working at the present moment.  Then they asked for Lisa to come to the appointment too.  While the vet was looking at the Springer he was also asking Lisa questions about grooming and eventually hired her on the spot.  And that was when Lisa found her spot in the Woodbury Community.  She worked there for two and half years.  She left there because of miscommunications after the birth of her premature son.  After Lisa left she went to work for Petsmart in 1996.  She had worked at the Fridley , MN store for a while then had to leave to take care of her mother who became ill.  When Lisa returned she was rehired with Petsmart and worked for them for six and half years. 

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In 2003 Lisa had a huge opportunity to go to Chicago , IL to go and see her first trade show and enter in her first ever grooming competition.  She had entered with her own personal dog "Bailey", a little Shih Tzu/Poodle cross, in the beginner mix breed competition.  Her dog had eight months growth of hair on him.  When she was given the start, she noticed that she had no electricity to run her clippers, so she ended up completely hand scissoring her dog down to one inch in length.  She also finished with fifteen minutes left on the clock.  At the end she took first place for mix breed beginners grooming.

 

​In total she has been grooming since the summer of 1987, and has found her career a very fulfilling and rewarding one.  She has watched pets come and go. Now Lisa has started her own business.