While visiting frugal friends over the Fourth of July, we finally got to try a FURminator. FURminators are pet grooming tools designed to remove that downy undercoat so many dogs and cats have beneath the fur we see. Some breeds have amazingly thick undercoats, especially over the winter. In fact, this spring Orion changed color from almost white to wheat just by shedding so much of his winter coat. The dog killed our Dyson Animal with this spring's shedding, just to put it in perspective. (The Dyson was taken to a local vacuum hospital where it was lovingly nursed back to health, and has returned to work in our home with no restrictions.) Anyway, we tried the FURminator on all the dogs and it worked wonderfully. I knew that it's an expensive tool, but if our financially savvy friends deemed it worth the money, we knew it would be a good buy - especially if it saves us from repairing the Dyson again.
When we got home from our trip, there was a flyer from PetSmart in the mail with, GASP!, a coupon for $ 3 off the FURminator! How did they know? In my head I figured the tool itself would be $25, maybe $30, so $ 3 off was a reasonable deal. After dropping Orion off at daycare one morning, the kids and I headed off to PetSmart. There, in the back of the store, across from the professional groomers, were the FURminators. At sixty bucks each. I put back each of the packages my enthusiastic son had thrown in our cart and announced in utter disbelief, "We can't afford this!". A few of the people dropping off their pets for grooming stared, but the PetSmart employees at least had the good sense and decency to be embarrassed.
When our cat needed emergency dental care, we found the money. We've never hesitated to provide our rescued pets with preventative medicine, and we donate regularly to the local Humane Society. Our pets even enjoy toys and fancy bedding (Orion has his crate bed, his cedar bed, and a special bed for the SUV - talk about spoiled!). But $ 60 for a comb? I could feed my family for a week on sixty bucks. Including Orion. I've since seen the FURminator for less on some websites, and the reviews are consistently great, but even people who love this tool can't understand why it's so expensive. And, it turns out, you have to buy replacement blades! So for us, sadly, unless I find one at a yard sale or the Pet Santa puts Orion on his "Nice" list, our dreams of a FURminator have been terminated.
