Barbara Morrison has seen her dream come true. She’s a private business owner, she gets to work at home and her clients are dogs. Morrison runs her canine grooming business, Clipper’s Grooming Salon, from a separate building located in back of her log cabin home in Edgewood.
“Can life get any better?” she said. “I have seven grandkids and I’m here at home.”
“I love it here,” said the salon’s only employee, Fran Sartaine, standing at a table blow-drying a poodle. “This job is totally stress-free.”
The relaxed feeling of Clipper’s Grooming Salon can be felt from the parking lot. Clients visiting the salon are met with a country setting, complete with horses. The stairs leading to the salon wind past a trickling pond filled with brightly colored Koi.
Once inside, visitors are serenaded with singing canaries chirping from their cages in the corner and Morrison’s warm personality. The groomer has truly found her place, turning her back on the commuter’s life.
Morrison worked for Boeing for 14 and a half years in a number of positions, including wing sealer and inspector. At one point she worked on the B2 bomber under security clearance when it was still considered “classified.”
She worked at Boeing in Frederickson, Renton and Seattle, but it was the last four years commuting to Everett that proved to be the real killer.
“It was a 600 mile work week,” she said. “Any Friday or holiday I spent four hours one way on the freeway. I was spending too much of my life on the road. I thought to myself, ‘I’ve got to do something else.’ But what could I do?”
She began searching for ideas for a home-based business. At one point she considered opening a day care center.
The light bulb went off when Morrison tried to make an appointment to get her dogs groomed at a local salon, “Love on a Leash.” She was told they were fully booked.
“I thought, “Wow, she’s really busy,’” Morrison said. “I realized there’s a market out there and there is really a need for this. I’ve loved dogs all my life and thought this is something I could really do.”
Morrison attributed the current popularity of salons to more people “getting into their dogs,” and the fact that more dogs live indoors as opposed to being backyard dogs.
“People are so much more into their dogs now than they used to be,” she said. “There’s a lot more house dogs. People figure if the dog’s going to be sleeping in the bed it better be clean.”
The aspiring groomer went to Maser’s Academy of Grooming in Kenmore, the only state certified grooming school at the time.
When she completed school, there was still plenty of work to be done. Morrison felt she needed more hands-on experience so she answered an ad in the paper for a dog groomer. The salon just happened to be Love on a Leash and what could have been a cross-town rivalry turned into a symbiotic relationship.
“I actually worked there as a dog groomer,” Morrison said with a laugh. “The owner, Nancy Maring, and I are good friends now. If she has too much business, she refers people to me. She’s my mentor.”
After three and half years, Clippers is up-and-running and has a Web site, www.clippersgrooming.com. Their motto is to create a “clean and healthy environment while working for long term and happy relationships.” Despite the warm, homey atmosphere, Clippers is a state-of-the-art facility complete with a lift table that can be lowered all the way to the ground for dogs to step on to. A slip-free ramp leads up to the wash basins. The salon also offers shedless grooming and a shower massage.
“We have a recirculating bathing system,” Morrison said. “They get a shower and a massage, plus a very good deep down cleaning.”
Morrison’s husband, Richard, helps out with the bathing at times.
“When am I going to get a paycheck?” he joked.
Sartaine said she takes the dogs for walks to release pent-up energy.
“We try to walk every dog so they don’t get excited,” she said. “We try to keep things low key so the dogs don’t get stressed.”
Morrison explained that dogs receive a nail trim and their ears are fluffed and cleaned out.
“And they get lots of love,” she said. “Animals bring out the best in people.”
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Clippers grooming salon:
> Location: 4125 108th Avenue East, Edgewood
> Phone: 253-845-5939, by appointment only.
Reach reporter Susan Schell at 253-841-2481 ext. 315 or by e-mail at susan.schell@puyallupherald.com.
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