What a mess!

While we were out yesterday, Bao somehow wandered into a tangle of the most awful stuff I've ever seen. He was on a leash, sniffing happily at things and then suddenly he let out a little whimper and sat down.

He was covered with lumps of fur. It was amazing. It happened so fast. At the center of each lump of fur was this little, pale green thing the size of a bean that somehow congealed all of the fur around it into an impenetrable ball. A burr? Some kind of cactus? They were prickly, but I think they also exuded some kind of sap. Ah, the joys of the Arizona desert!

There was no combing this stuff out. I had to cut it out, carefully, bean by bean. It was so bad I had to literally scissor Bao out of his harness, if you can imagine that. And some of these things were in delicate areas. He had one on his upper lip right beneath his nose (you can see it in the photo) but none in his beautiful ears, thank goodness! Or in his tail.

Luckily, we're going to grooming today.