I was so sad to hear that Joan Rivers had died today. I groomed her dog, Spike, a very handsome Yorkshire Terrier for three years. This was 1990 and I had just started Kent’s Kanines in 1989. Her secretary at that time just happened to live in the same building that I lived in and she saw me with my beautiful Yorkie, Lola. She stopped me and told me how beautiful Lola was and then proceeded to tell me her boss had a Yorkie too. I looked down at her T-Shirt and she had on A Joan Rivers Show t-shirt! I asked with great interest if Joan Rivers was her boss. She said YES and I promptly gave her my card. The following week I was going to the TV studio on 12TH Avenue and 60TH Street, the old CBS Studios where she was taping her show and groomed Spike there for about six months.

I then suggested that it might be better for Spike to be groomed at her home, the studio was very busy and Spike was so sensitive and nervous. Joan lived 1o minutes from me in Manhattan so it worked out much better. She had a magnificent apartment on 5TH Avenue and 62ND Street, a triplex, I loved going there. Melissa’s apartment was below her two main levels, (Melissa was living in CA at that point) and that is where I groomed Spike until I moved to San Francisco 1993.

The news today made me think back to those days and remember all the great things about working for her. For me, she was an easy boss. Loved everything I did for Spike. She trusted me implicitly and I was very proud to work for her. At that point in my career, she was the first celebrity whose dog I groomed. I would often come in the evening when she arrived from traveling and we would sit in the huge foyer and she would be full of life even at 9:30PM after a full day of work. She really was remarkable! A one of a kind, a true New Yorker and a lover of dogs.

When I told her that I was moving to California to live with a man, she looked at me straight in the eye and said ” Did you get the ROCK “? I giggled with embarrassment and said no. I think back on that one event and I do wish I had listened. That was her way of telling me to be careful and I do believe she was trying to protect me. She was a good Jewish mother!

I will always be thankful to Joan for believing in me and trusting me with her beloved Spike. I will truly miss her.