Pet groomer Bev teaches her cats to use the bathroom

There’s more to grooming a dog than meets the eye — as you learn while watching Beverley Hamer at work in North Western Veterinary Clinic on Mucurapo Road. Beverley, (or Bev, as most people call her) a bright-eyed, live wire  grandmother of two, has been grooming Trinidad dogs for the past eighteen years while she lives with two cats. Born in the UK, as a baby Bev’s parents took her to Jamaica where, after leaving school, she started work as what, in those more gracious days, was known as an air hostess with Bee Wee. Three and a half years later she married a Bee Wee pilot and came to live in Trinidad where her two children, Lisa and David were born. Now divorced with her daughter Lisa living in Dallas, Texas with her American husband; and David, his English wife and sons Jack (7) and Charlie (5) living in England, Bev lives with her cats in a townhouse in Glencoe, perched dizzyling high on a steep hillside overlooking the Gulf of Paria. In 1985, with both children studying “away,” it was Bev’s love of  animals, especially dogs and cats, that prompted her to take a  three-and-a-half month-long concentrated course in grooming dogs, in Hounslow, one of the least attractive places in the UK. For six days a week, in the freezing cold, damp depths of an English winter she travelled to Hounslow to learn the techniques of combing, brushing, clipping and bathing dogs of all shapes and sizes and breeds, to prepare them for the show ring — and travelled back to the flat she shared with her son, covered in dog hair.

At the end of that course Bev was the first person from the Caribbean to have her name entered in the UK Professional Groomer’s Directory. She said she had heard of only one other person doing grooming here at that time, now there are four of five more groomers. Bev has her regular clientele of long-haired dogs; poodles (of course), spaniels, West Highland terriers, collies, retrievers, Pekinese, . . . and plenty of pretty cross-breeds like pom-peks, too. When I visited North West Veterinary Bev was preparing to groom “Maestro”, a Giant Schnauzer that Bev calls her “Gentle Giant.” While she waited for an assistant to help her lift Maestro on to the grooming table, she stroked and praised him, playing with his ears and his paws, telling him what good boy he was. Maestro lapped up the praise and the loving-up. With Maestro on the table, Bev set to work to comb the knots out of  his long hair. Bev used the scissors on thick knots, passing the scissors through the knots away from the dog’s body. With all Maestro’s hair free of knots she clipped his coat, trimmed his “moustache” and “beard”, tidied the fringes around his paws. I hadn’t time to see her clip his nails, or shampoo his coat (with human rather than dog shampoo), blow-dry him and brush him until he shone. The photograph shows how sleek, neat, tidy and shiny he looked when I returned to North West to see him after his grooming. As she worked Bev gave us tips on grooming long-haired dogs (the short-haired, she says, only need brushing). She uses a Greyhound metal comb and Universal 6-inch wide slicker brush. She advises owners to groom long-haired dogs four times a week, paying special attention to the main matting areas behind the ears (and inside the flap, for spaniels), under the “armpits”, inside the hind legs and rump.

As most dogs are territorial Bev finds it best to see her clients on her own turf, at North West Veterinary Clinic, whether they are patients of that clinic, or not; they are easier to handle in an  unfamiliar environment than they would be at home. In her own home Bev Hamer’s cats are something else. Neither Henry nor Beulah would perform for strangers when I visited her, I had to be content to photograph her photograph of Bert (now, alas, no more) who, as I hope you can see, knew what the toilet was for — and used it. The others, I’m told, copy his example. Bev’s cats come when she calls them, curl up on her bed, use the spare bathroom — like Bert. They, too, are combed and brushed regularly, their nails clipped (to spare her cushions and upholstery). They are her companions, coming to the door to greet her when she comes home from work, from a game of bridge, or visiting friends. And what better companionship could any grandmother want? Postscript: As member of the Animal Welfare Network that often has trouble finding the owners of lost dogs, Bev pleaded with me to ask all dog owners to make sure their dogs have “dog-tags” attached to their collars clearly marked with the dog’s name and their own telephone numbers in case their pet should stray.