A short story and tribute on how & why Edmonds Scrub A Pup was born.

In 1996 a sweet yet terribly abused puppy was brought to our home. We immediately fell in love with him and named him Oscar Myer. We had just gotten married and soon bought our first home in Edmonds. Oscar had a big back yard to play in (no more being chained to a broken down truck, like he had before he came to us) and lots of great food, toys, his favorite red ball and our great big bed to sleep in. Life was good for this 4 month old pup. He had a lot of "issues" but over time he was learning to trust again.

Then it was time for him to get a bath, blow out & brushing. We took him to one of those big chain store grooming shops for his first professional bath. We explained Oscar's past and told them to please be very gentle & not to do anything that would scare him. We were assured he was in safe hands. As anxious parents I called after one hour & was told he was doing great and to pick him up in two hours. We were right there and Oscar came out very anxious and was very clingy over the next few days. I chalked it up to him being away from us for the first time. Two days later I noticed little bloodied scabies al over his back & down his sides. I called the grooming shop and they could not give me an explanation. I then took him to our Vet (who he loved) & Oscar would not get out of the car. So our wonderful Dr. sat in the back seat with Oscar & loved on him till he felt like he could go in. After the Dr. examined him he told me he thought Oscar had been beaten with a slicker brush. I was dumb struck. I could not believe that so called professionals would do such a thing to a helpless animal who was entrusted in their care. The Dr. pulled out such a brush and Oscar wet himself and bared his teeth. We were heart sick. So, for the next six months our mission was to have this chain store/grooming shop take some responsibility for what had happened. I talked to manager after manager and then to the vice president of this huge chain pet store and was told that could never happen. Well, Oscar was living proof it can and did happen. We could never brush or comb him again. If we took a brush out for our other dogs he would bare his teeth, cry and go under the bed. I promised myself I would never take another dog and leave him to be groomed. We thought there had to be a better way and we could not be the only people this had happened to. We decided to do something about it. About a week before this I had seen an Oprah show about following your passions. That was all we needed. We opened a do-it-yourself dog wash three months later. Going into it blind, with little money, little knowledge of dog washing, but with a great love for animals and Oprah's inspirational words about following your heart, Scrub A Pup was born.

Three years later we have a much bigger location with full grooming, loving staff, doggie day care and a pet store (that only carries top premium pet food) and, of course, do-it-yourself doggie wash.

On a sad note our Oscar Myer was never the same dog after that incident. He had seizures, he became very aggressive towards us and our other animals and never really trusted anyone again. We had to make the heart breaking decision to put him to sleep in January of 2003. So, Scrub A Pup was born thanks to our sweet Oscar Myer.