“Grooming makes them feel better. The dogs prance around, and when you tell them how good they look, it enhances it,” said Thomas, who owns Pettsboro Room and Groom.

A veteran in the dog grooming business who moved here from New York two and a half years ago, Thomas has a ball every day doing her job — whether it is giving her regular client Rascal a dyed-yellow Mohawk on his head, or giving ChezChez, another faithful client, an immaculate wash and clipping that sends her out the door looking like she is about to breakfast at Tiffany’s.

Jean Gilles, ChezChez’s owner, loves the way Thomas doesn’t give her dog the typical poodle clip with pompoms all over but rather a sort of puppy cut. The final touch can be bows or fluffy feathers with rhinestones in them.

“ChezChez is enormously pleased with herself when I come to get her,” Gilles said. “Once when I was walking ChezChez when she had the feather combination on, a man out walking that morning said to her, ‘If you’re dressed up like that in the morning, what will you wear tonight?’”

The final look is like gravy on dog food. Thomas said that dog grooming, whether done by an owner or a professional, is important to a canine’s overall health, including the eyes, skin, rear end and feet.

An added bonus is that by handling a dog during these tasks, whoever is doing the work can feel lumps on the dog’s body and see ear infections. Thomas often informs owners of things that had gone unnoticed.

“How many people don’t know the dog is shaking its head because its ear is bothering it?” Thomas said. “I’ve seen dogs where their coat is a cast on their body. They haven’t been groomed or brushed and the coat mats until it becomes like a case. The dog can’t walk if its body is in a cast of hair. The hygiene is more important than the actual appearance.”

Her canine experience and empathy is often put to use helping shelter dogs put on their best face.

“When you take a shelter dog and make them look pretty and then they go into a happy home and you remember what they came from, that is, to me, fulfillment,” said Thomas.

Wendy Costa couldn’t fulfill her childhood dream of actually being a dog, but building a career grooming them leaves her imaginary tail wagging.

The hustle and bustle of Costa’s job as dog groomer often leaves her no time for lunch, but each new dawn finds her excited about going to work. Each evening finds her expanding her grooming knowledge by reading trade magazines and participating in several on-line groups.

“I want to be able to hold my head up and know I can do anything one day,” Costa said. “So I study and study. It’s a trade you can never stop studying. There’s always room to grow and more things to learn.”

She has high hopes of completing all of the certification tests offered in her field and then becoming a master groomer through one of several groups such as the National Dog Groomers Association of America (www.nationaldoggroomers.com).

Before tackling that goal, she knows she needs to build on her two years of experience as a groomer. In addition, she needs to find someone willing to loan her a dog.

“You need to borrow someone’s dog, grow them out to the proper breed specifics instead of the pet trim they may have, then take the dog to the testing area and groom them under a tester’s supervision,” Costa said.

To become a master groomer, she would need to borrow many dogs, as aspirants are required to groom a dog in all the breed groups, such as long-legged terriers, short-legged, etc.

Costa went to a “groomfest” this year, which is a trade show with workshops for groomers. She hopes someday to attend the biggest groomfest of all, the GroomExpo in Hershey, Pa. “It is the big, big trade show that groomers drool thinking about,” Costa said.

The perils of the business can include being bitten by a stressed-out dog, but the only bite Costa has ever received was from an insect.

“I found a live hornet matted into the arm pit of a little dog once,” she said. “It stung the crud out of me and my hand swelled pretty badly. The dog was fine though, and that’s what matters.”

Pettsboro Room and Groom can be reached at (919) 542-6214; Four Paws Animals Clinic is at 942-1788.

Deborah R. Meyer can be contacted at 942-3252 or at eloise@nando.com