Why Trixie & Bess?

Why the name

Trixie and Bess were two collie cross dogs which I grew up with during the 1970s. Trixie was my grandparents dog and Bess her daughter, who belonged to my aunt and uncle.

Trixie wasn’t supposed to have puppies, but she had a habit of taking herself for a walk down to the beach in Paignton and wasn’t spayed (this was the 1970s remember). She had three puppies, two boys and Bess which my aunt and uncle kept.

Grampa with Trixie or Judy — This is my grampa with one of their long line of pet dogs. It might be Trixie but I think it's more likely to be Judy their next dog, another collie cross.

Kirsty with Ben the Border Collie — This is me at some point in the 1980s with Ben as a puppy. He was a Border Collie and came after Judy.

Why the business

Like many people who train as a pet groomer, it’s a second career. My first one being a graphic designer (which I still do at k-creative).

As a child I was always interested in animals and looked at working with them as a career. But decided I wasn’t intelligent enough to be a vet and it was too hard to make a living working with horses.

I never considered pet grooming as an option at the time. I don’t think it was even thought of as a career back then. So I opted for design instead.

Fast forward a good few years and after over 25+ years in design I decided I wanted to do something else and preferably with animals. So I had a light bulb moment... how about pet grooming.

I started training in 2017 and Trixie & Bess has been up and running since early 2019.