Michele Zinser began her grooming career as a customer at Featherle. After her two daughters, Emily and Lauren, grew older, she was offered a job as receptionist at the Chantilly salon. Her work naturally morphed into training as a groomer and in November 2007 she graduated from Canine Clippers School of Pet Grooming. Michele was born in Lubbock Texas into an Air Force family and grew up mainly in the Midwest. She majored in psychology at Indiana University and later pursued a Masters Degree. She had a Siamese cat named Mimi and considered herself primarily a cat person until she began spending more time around dogs and realized her affinity with them.Like many groomers, Michele is naturally creative. From her own kiln, she made tiles which she hand painted, developed a business creating trivets and mosaic tiles for bathrooms and kitchens and sold her creations at craft shows. She now channels her creativity and gentle nature into grooming. She loves all breeds and especially enjoys grooming to fit a breed’s particular profile and in styling dogs’ faces. She notes how positively a well groomed pet responds to its transformation and ‘shows off’, with wagging tail and bright eyes, delighting in attention from both groomers and owner. Michele lives in Chantilly with her husband, Lee, Lauren (who will graduate from high school in 2009), and Emily (now in college), two dogs: a part Border Collie named Cookie, and a Maltese named Minnie. Also sharing their home is a parakeet named Sweetie and a Cockatiel named Cheeky, who, both very vocal, greet Michele each morning and announce to the family that ‘mom is up’! Michele can be found at Featherle 3-4 days a week, usually Wednesday through Friday.