About me

Connor is cross-eyed. He would also swim to Nantucket if we let him.

Oh, great. This is the part where I’m supposed to impress you with a clever introduction.

My name is Vicky, and I’m one of those horrible clichés that you read about in magazines like Women’s World. Eight years into a moderately successful journalism career, I had a depressing and terrifying realization: I hated what I was doing. I’d wanted to be a writer from the time I was seven years old, but somewhere between a demanding and demeaning boss and an emotional breakdown, I lost the part of myself that I’d always trusted and believed in. For the first time in 23 years, I was at a loss for words. By the time I resigned, I could barely piece together an e-mail.

The happiest I’d ever been at a job was when I worked at a grooming shop in college. So when I decided to step away from journalism, I knew exactly what I wanted to do.

Also known as Boo Boo and Miss Wooby, Bailey has an incredible underbite.

In October of 2010, I enrolled at the Massachusetts Academy of Canine Cosmetology, where I learned everything from bathing, drying, and scissoring furry clients to opening and maintaining a successful grooming salon. I graduated in April of 2011 and went to Ohio to complete a four-week apprenticeship with my dear friend and mentor, Kristi Baum, NDGAA-certified master groomer and owner of Designer Dog in Wooster.

Within three weeks of returning to Boston, I pretty much landed my dream job as the sole groomer for the Urban Hound Hotel in the South End. Although I was initially terrified to be on my own, thanks to the support of my wonderful boss Rebecca and the rest of the Urban Hound staff–not to mention the incredible dogs with whom I work–I’m quickly gaining confidence. And I can’t remember the last time I’ve been this content.

A little more about me:

• My penchant for pigtails and sweet corn can likely be traced to my hometown of Wooster, Ohio, where Amish buggies are as common as pick-up trucks.
• My former boss at the grooming shop where I worked in college once dragged me across four states on an odyssey in search of Johnny Cash.
  

  Edward's trademark is his vacant expression.

• I’ve climbed 27 (and counting) of New Hampshire’s 48 4,000-foot mountains–some of them as many as four times.
• I have the most annoying hiccups EVER.
• My cat thinks he’s Jesus.
• I can recite most of the dialogue to the original Star Wars trilogy and Pee-Wee’s Big Adventure.
• Did I mention that I’m super cool?

And a little about my family:

• My dogs are Connor, a yellow lab, and Bailey, a golden retriever. I’m painfully aware that I have the most stereotypical, all-American canines EVER, and I love them in spite of it.
• Connor enjoys eating carrots, riding in the car with his head out the window, and wearing his Doggles.
• Bailey’s hobbies are biting snow, chasing squirrels, and stealing her brother’s food.
• My cats are Nina and Edward. Nina is perfect. Edward is fat. Both love to cuddle.
  

  Nina is perfect--except for that time she ripped my leather couch.

• Whenever Edward is being particularly annoying, I put him in a reusable shopping bag and hang him from a doorknob. Please don’t report me to the MSPCA.
• Nina likes to snuggle, open the bathroom door at inopportune moments, and observe the upstairs neighbor’s guinea pig. She hates Tori Amos, particularly her cover of “House of the Rising Sun.”
• Connor, Bailey, and Edward are best friends. Nina doesn’t need friends because she’s perfect.
• Oh, and then there’s Jenn, my girlfriend. But she made me promise not to write a lot about her.

Questions? Comments? Client referrals? E-mail groomofonesown@gmail.com.