Lovin’ All the Babies

We found Colleen over a year ago. We needed someone that was willing to groom cats, which is really hard to find. I found her on Unilocal and was surprised to find that she was located in our neighborhood.
We have a male medium haired orange tabby named Radley. At first our issue was because Radley was getting poo stuck in his fluffy butt fur, so he only needed a slight trim. I was unable to drop him off at his appointment because Colleen and I work very similar hours so my husband dropped him off on a Saturday. I still have never met her. He raved about Colleen. He said her love and care for animals was very apparent, her grooming studio is a great setup and that I shouldn’t worry… he could tell that Radley was in great hands.
She mentioned that sometimes it can take awhile to groom cats because they can get very stressed out and she likes to give them plenty of breaks. We let her know that Radley is a burrower and that he feels the safest when he’s hiding, which is why we fill his carrier with blankets and towels. His first appointment with Colleen took a few hours, but the trim was perfect.
The next time we needed him groomed Colleen showed my husband this new tool she had purchased. My husband described it as a ball-​like helmet with a small slit in it. The ball goes over the cat’s head and the slit is so they can still see out. It makes Radley feel like he is hiding, but she still has full access to his body. The appointment only took one hour! And Radley came home much less stressed out. I’m sure it was much better for Radley and Colleen. I had never heard of this contraption and wasn’t able to find anything about it on the internet, so I assume it’s not a commonly used tool. It should be! How amazing!
This past June we moved to Livermore. The hot Livermore summers really did a number on Radley’s fur and he was shedding like crazy! I tried looking for a cat groomer in the Livermore area, but was unable to find anyone that was willing or able to take appointments for cats. Since Radley seemed very comfortable with Colleen we decided to make the drive to take him to her. We still spend a lot of time in the South Bay. My work and family are in the San Jose/​Santa Clara area. And since Colleen has that amazing tool and is so great with animals it was completely worth the drive!
This time I felt Radley needed a more serious haircut. He was shedding so much that he threw up 3 hairballs in one week! I had heard about «Lion Haircuts», but thought that they were a just joke or something someone had created using Photoshop. Apparently not! Someone I know has a long haired orange tabby and had them trimmed into a Lion Cut. It looked adorable and she said her cat loved it! We asked if Colleen would be wiling to do a Lion Cut and she agreed. He came out looking great! SO CUTE! As soon as we got him home and out of the carrier he was parading around the house. It was obvious he felt confident and so much better about not having the upkeep of all that fur! Colleen said that since Radley is strictly indoor [and in the heat of our home] that we could get the Lion Cut done for him about every 4 months. We just scheduled his next Lion Cut for next weekend. I am so excited to see him with his stylish new haircut and I know he will love it too. I hope that one of these appointments I will finally get to meet Colleen. My husband can’t rave about her enough and her work speaks for itself!
Colleen is the BEST! We highly recommend her!

Colleen is amazing. I wish I could give her more stars. She really, truly loves and cares about the animals she grooms and pet sits. She is extremely patient and kind with them during groomings. Your dog or cat will have a much better time with Colleen than anywhere else. Plus she’s a great groomer. She is the kindest person. We bring our pup to her for grooming and pet sitting. She is so wonderful with him. She treats him like her own and spoils him with love and toys. Her other dogs are really sweet too. I don’t know what we’d do without her. It’s really rare to find someone who is as loving and cares as much as she does.

Clean and professional. Duke loves his new ‘doos. that’s all I ask!

Colleen deserves 10 stars for the fabulous job she has done with our 10 year old Pomeranian, Ashley. Here’s the story …
Like most Pom’s, Ashley started out with a beautiful, thick coat, requiring a good amount of bathing and brushing, to keep her looking her best. Over time, with a house full of small children, and other obligations and distractions, I did not keep up with the grooming enough, and so she started to get her share of matted hair. Then, when she would get a bath and I tried to brush her, it got to be painful for her. My sweet little Pom started to become Cujo, every time she saw a hair brush. Not good.
Finally, I decided to take her to Petsmart in Milpitas for «professional» grooming. Their solution was a complete disaster. They shaved her, sparing only a mane around her face, making her look like a little lion. This is completely inappropriate for a Pom. but that was the least of our problems. Serious skin. follicle damage prevented her coat from properly growing back in. My vet even tested her for health issues, thinking she might have a nutritional disorder.
Another local groomer did their best for her, but still her coat was quite thin, and really had lost its original beauty. I pretty much accepted things as they were, but would never encourage others to shave a Pomeranian. Frankly, I feel like the shop that pulled this number should have their license yanked.
As I got busy with work, my dear wife started to make the runs to the groomer every six weeks. She had a less than ideal experience with the groomer I had been using, when she drove in rush hour traffic to drop the dog off for an appointment, only to learn that something had come up and so they needed to see the dog another day. My wife had had enough, so she decided to seek a groomer who she felt might our needs better. She came across Colleen and Lovin’ All the Babies.
Colleen made sure that we checked with our vet to be sure there were no health issues contributing to the damaged coat, and used her experience and gentle products, helped Ashley to regain her beauty. If someone looks at a photo of our dog from a couple years ago, they probably would not believe that it is the same dog seen today.
I cannot thank Colleen enough for all she has done for our dog, but I do urge others to support this wonderful groomer.

We take our cat in here for a yearly haircut. It is more than a shave. She is a long hair and can’t manage all the fur, plus it is hot in the summer. She gets great care here at Loving All the Babies.

Colleen worked on my little guy yesterday. He came home smelling and looking great sleek and put together. He enjoyed his visit with her and her awesome clippers. Will definitely be back for the one on one service and affordable price!

I know that my two dogs are in good hands with Colleen. Her grooming skills are expert. Best of all Colleen approaches her furry clients with true love and heartfulness.

Colleen has been great. We found her through Unilocal and have been very happy with her services. She always takes extra time to get to know our cats, and give them a chance to calm down and get comfortable with their surroundings before we get them out of their carrier.
Our current cat/​kid Clarence is going for his second bath and nail trimming this week, but had some problems with his fur matting in one spot on his chest when my wife and I came back from vacation. After calling to setup an appointment with Colleen we stopped by with Clarence and Colleen used an extremely quit electric clipper to shave the matted hair out. Clarence wasn’t scared in the least. Colleen really has a way with the cats, and their humans.

Very knowledgeable groomer and really cares about her client’s furkid. Colleen also worked very quickly and efficiently. She called us as Chloe our cat was almost ready, and when we arrived, she asked us to inspect Chloe’s haircut to make sure we liked it. Price was fair n Colleen is only 15 minutes from us. I’d recommend her.

We found Colleen on Unilocal as we were looking for a great place to take our little Buster (yorkie) for grooming. Being that it was Sunday, Colleen gladly accepted our visit and when we met her we knew Buster would be comfortable. Colleen is a very nice lady with a warm heart. We dropped Buster off for about an hour and a half and when we returned Buster looked so cute! He was in the front fenced yard with a few other doggies playing and having a great time with Colleen. Buster had a minor toenail clipping incident, but nothing bad. Colleen assured us it was fine and gave us some medicine to stop the minor bleed. It stopped right away and without any further issues. We really are happy with her services and definitely will return. Thank you Colleen, see you later this summer. :-)

Colleen is great! Upon finding out about her services on Unilocal,we decided to give her a try. When we arrived, Colleen recommended we take our kitty to get his booster shots. This was definitely useful information as we didn’t know that he needed those shots.
A week later, we took our kitty back to see Colleen. Keep in mind, our kitty can get very moody outside of our home. Apparently, he wasn’t cooperating with Colleen so we had to come back to help her out, which we had expected and were on stand by just in case.
After washing and trimming a little bit of hair off our kitty, we couldn’t trim his entire body as he became very upset, but we felt we did just enough to keep our kitty cool for the summer time.
Colleen did not charge us because she felt she wasn’t able to complete the job even though it was our kitty’s fault for being very difficult to work on.
We appreciate her services tremendously and her new shop that will be open soon I’m sure will be wonderful.
Thanks Colleen!

Our 1 year old Westie is a bit high-​maintenance with his cut and Colleen does an AMAZING job getting through all the hair and styling it to make him as handsome as the Ceaser dog on TV. I was so ecstatic to find her and it was my dumb luck to find her on the first try. (Thank you to the Scottie owner from the Reed St. dog park that referred me!)
After his first visit with Colleen, the boyfriend’s sister and I were singing her praises in the car after we picked him up to go home, and I even said, «Lord, please bless this woman with a long, healthy and happy life so that my little MacWorthy can continue to look like the handsome beast he is!» — we both laughed out loud, and continued to admire her work as it evolved over the month his cut grew out. It was beautiful… (true story, and I am in NO WAY a religious person, but if I have to believe in a higher power to have the tools and people to support my family’s success, I WILL DAMMIT.) =P
She texts you with follow-​up reminders for your appointment, she advertises she can pick up your dog for grooming/​boarding, and she does EVERYTHING: hair cut, nail trimmings, baths, expressing, etc. She discusses your dog’s skin needs if any and cares enough to offer recommendations that will improve the quality of life for you and your dog. My guy looks white as snow with a coat that’s soft for DAYS. MacWorthy loves being able to romp around with her other dogs (her bulldog is a sexy beast!) and I like that he gets an opportunity to socialize with other animals under her watchful care.
His first visit with her wasn’t super smooth, as he was fussy and difficult to manage (terrier puppies are SUPER high-​energy) and he received a cut by accident as she trimmed his nails. Instead of pretending nothing happened, it was the FIRST thing she brought to my attention when I arrived to pick him up. She expressed her apologies (although not needed, I completely understand how hard it can be…) and gave me aftercare tips and pointed out the affected area because I couldn’t even spot it. It was no worse than a paper cut that clotted before I even arrived. Full transparency in letting me know was worth more than words could describe. Even my HUMAN dentist isn’t as honest with me as this woman is with my dog. If I could hug her without being weird and inappropriate, I would…
… 2 more visits later, I receive some awful news that Colleen was not feeling well and her doctor had advised her she was to not work for a while as she re-​cooperated. I was devastated. «Had she axed us as a client because my puppy is too obnoxious/​difficult to work with?» or, «Were we not going in frequently enough to get our dog acclimated to her grooming him and it just wasn’t worth it?» — these thoughts haunted me for two weeks as I scoured more Unilocal reviews to find a new groomer. All the positive reviewed ones had exceptionally BAD ratings from specific individuals with situations that scared me straight. I figured I would leave finding a new groomer alone for a while until he started to show signs of need so I could get over being sad that we had lost our Colleen…
Just a few days ago, Colleen texts me again telling me she was feeling well enough to accept clients again and that she’d be happy to see MacWorthy again! It was like all was right again in the world and the stress of finding someone that will treat my fur-​baby well was alleviated IMMEDIATELY. I look forward to continuing to cultivate my relationship with her as my groomer, as these are the following reasons why I love her:
— Location: she’s literally minutes from us. The fact that she works from her home does not bother me, as I’ll take that over having my dog crated for hours until she can get to him.
— Availability: she works evenings. I commute from work in Palo Alto, so I can get my boy off to her around 6:30pm which is pretty late. I drop him off and she usually will text me at around 7:30 — 8pm to let me know she’s done.
— Efficiency: she’s quick, but her margin of error is very low with accuracy for my boy’s cut. If dog grooming were an easy job, I’d do it myself, but it’s not… so I leave that to her expertise happily.
— Cost: she’s great for all the services she provides, and it leaves me wiggle room to tip her as she deserves without feeling like I was robbed.
— Skill: The Westie cut I designate for my guy consists of a lion-​head, skirt and carrot tail. Each section of his body requires another technique or tool and is not a regular Flow-​bee or Clipper cut. She makes my beast sexy and random strangers compliment him as we walk past. I get to feel like a proud parent, and my guy gets smiles all day.
— Services: as I listed above, she cuts hair, trims nails, bathes the dog, expresses them, etc.
I’m looking forward to my next appointment, and I hope nothing but the best in regards to this woman’s success and health. Am I buttering her up good? Hell yeah. Whomever takes care of MY family IS FAMILY. =)

Coleen is very nice, but not a very skilled groomer. We used her several times hoping my dog’s haircut would improve as she got use to my pet. That didn’t happen. My dog was always uneven and his face was never trimmed as I asked specifically. Also, Coleen seems very unorganized. My biggest beef (as if the poor haircut wasn’t bad enough) was that the last time I picked my dog up, the grooming was $ 10 more than the previous time (6 weeks earlier) without any explanation.
I really disliked that her «grooming area» is a shed in her back yard. The dogs run around in a back yard with no grass. My dog never smelled clean and fresh and never had any bows in his hair.

I found this place on Unilocal and I am so glad I did because Colleen is seriously such a sweetheart she made me feel very comfortable about taking my kitty here.
My cat has been so matted up that she needed to be shaved down which I usually do myself but it had gotten so bad that I chose to get a professional to shave down my cat. When I called Colleen she was so friendly on the phone and explained everything that she would have to do in order to shave down my cat which is very assuring when bringing my cocoa bean to get groomed.
When I got to her place the studio that she does her grooming is very neat and organized. She let my cat out of her carrier to let her get adjusted to her and the surroundings which I think is key because if your pet doesn’t feel comfortable with the groomer it’s almost an impossible task to groom them.
When I dropped off my kitty and left I wasn’t worried at all because she was in good hands. Colleen even called me half way through to tell me how my cat is doing and what she had to do and when I’d have to pick her up.
I can’t explain how nice she was and what an amazing job she did on cocoa, she really knows what she is doing and she really cares about animals.
I would definitely recommend this place to anyone who needs to get their cat or dog groomed. She is AMAZING!

Came here for our dog Dot’s nail clipping. Our small 5lb. chihuahua behaved and didn’t bark once at Colleen (Dot usually barks at strangers). Dot was very well taken care of and Colleen definitely knows what she’s doing and is extremely knowledgable with dog grooming.
Prices were very reasonable. Though the place might not look like a dog grooming establishment, the high quality of the nail trimming makes up for it. I’ll be back.

First visit yesterday for a 7-​month old pup who’s not enthusiastic yet about having his nails or fur clipped. Colleen took the time to find out what we were looking for and didn’t propose anything radical.
When we picked up our dog, we had one happy guy who was B-​U-​tee-​ful. He didn’t come back smelling like coconuts or strawberries and didn’t have bows or bandanas. He just looks, feels, and smells like a clean dog. In contrast to another reviewer who may have preferred a more defined cut, we like a more natural approach.
The advice never gets old: communicate, communicate, communicate in advance. If you prefer a salon or spa-​type place and don’t mind having your dog confined to a cage for several hours, have at it. If you want your dog to have a relaxed appointment and a chance to run around with other dogs, come to Colleen.

First, let me say that Colleen is very nice & was good with my dog. No question. I like that she does one dog at a time. Her fee was low. However, I think these 5 star reviews are a little misleading.
Colleen’s «salon» is a shed in her backyard that has basic grooming equipment. Definitely on the low-​end of the scale. The yard is mostly dirt, so I can’t imagine how dogs run around there after a bath. The grooming looked like it had been done with a dull machete. His ears and moustache were uneven. The corner of his eyes next to his nose was not the immaculate clean other groomers have done.
Worse, Colleen did not notify me beforehand that she was going to flea-​shampoo him. Thank goodness I did not give him his Revolution flea treatment that day as planned; the double dose might have made him sick. My vet advised to hold off a week before treating him to keep him safe. She said she found «a flea» (which I think he may have picked up in her yard) and had to be sure HER dogs were kept flea-​proofed by flea-​washing my dog. I can’t imagine how this mostly dirt yard didn’t have fleas. And a call to ask would’ve been appropriate.
Some of these things may not matter to you. I think she really is a nice person. But this «salon» is clearly the lower end of the grooming spectrum. We won’t be going back.

Since moving back out to the Bay, I’ve haven’t had much confidence with garden variety groomers. To that end I took care of Schatzi’s grooming myself with mixed results — ugh.
When I met Colleen, she was helping another customer with her pooch and I noted how much care she took with both her 2 AND 4 legged client. So when I found out she was a professional groomer, I was immediately on board!
Her 1 on 1 time with Schatzi and all over doggy care philosophy really shon through. He looked great… looked. because I think its about time for him to go back again for another doggy spa day! I’ve been sitting on this review too long.

Review only goes to 5 stars… I would quite happily give 10
Colleen is THE best person I have ever taken any of my pets to for grooming.
Our Basset mix goes nuts when we turn off the expressway 3 blocks from her place… we arrive and its a struggle to even get the door open on the car before he is charging towards the doors.
Our new puppy is an American Staffordshire Terrier and he too has come to learn that a trip to Auntie Colleen is a special trip.
She boarded our pups for a long weekend not long after we got the little fella… they loved their time with her.
We had been to all the local DIY dogwash places before finding Colleen… needless to say… we don’t go there any more.
She will text or call or email you when you are about due for another wash & brush up if you want.
So…go on… make that call & try the groomer that lives up to the name… she really does love them all.

Colleen is the best groomer we have been too!!! Sax looks forward to all his visits when he goes even if it is just for a bath. In the past I have taken him to Petsmart which was a complete disaster. When I met Colleen at her husbands tattoo shop I knew she was the one for my pup! My dog is my baby so I have to make sure he has to best care and I trust her 100% with him. He gets soooo excited when we pull up, and the outcome is amazing. He looks as handsome as ever when she finishes him up. She knows exactly what she is doing and always gives good tips. There is no way I would ever go to another groomer and if you are like me and want your pet in the best care possible you will go to Lovin’ All The Babies because Colleen will treat your pup like it’s her own!!! :). She Rocks!!! Sax agrees too!