We took Smokey to have his summer cut on Wednesday. His fur was matted and every time he came in he brought trash with him. This is Smokey before.

There’s a piece of grass or pine straw on his coat right in front of his nose.

Mark took him in for his cut. Mark has always said Smokey should have a deep, raspy voice like he spent too much time in a bar, but he doesn’t. Mark said he mewed like a pitiful little kitten on the way.

This is Smokey with his new summer cut.

This is his best side. He has a terrible pink scar on his right side. I think we have shown it in an earlier blog post. We think it’s where Zoe bit him.

You can’t see his pot belly here. He has some strange masses in his stomach that seem to make it worse than you might expect. The vet doesn’t think they’re anything to worry about. He’s had them for several years at least.

Open wide and say, “Aaaaaaah.”

We had Zoe up on the countertop to put his eye drops in. He must have been sleepy because he yawned so wide we thought his head was going to split.

Zoe gets his closeup.

 You can see that he’s a little cross-eyed. He was lying on the sofa here, where he looks his most innocent.

There’s a little dark grunge in the corners of his eyes. We think it comes from the eyedrops he has to get for his glaucoma. Cleaning his eyes is part of the twice-daily ritual of putting in his eyedrops. I clean them out, and then by the next time he gets his medicine, his eyes are grungy again.

It must be summertime, because Zoe got his summer cut on Wednesday. This is how he looked before.

Zoe’s impression of a throw pillow

This is him after the cut.

You can’t see it in the picture, but his coat has grooves that make him look like an unfinished marble statue. You also can’t see it in the picture but he has a big pink belly that rolls out on the floor when he lies down. We’re going to have to put on a treadmill and cut back on the beer.

It’s supposed to get a little cooler next week. At least the ends of his legs and the tip of his tail will be warm.

Zoe has always had a problem taking care of his long hair. His mane is even longer than the rest of his fur, and he always gets a mouthful of it when he grooms.

We plan to get him a spring cut next week. He’ll get a short cut on his underside but we may leave the rest of his coat alone until we’re sure warm weather is here to stay.