Tia Resleure: shaman, artist, canine dental hygienist

Twice a year we take our two Italian Greyhounds to get their teeth cleaned – I know it sounds precious, but these dogs are famous for having their teeth rot out of their head, so our breeder insists on it. (Do YOU brush your dogs’ teeth every day? You’re supposed to!)

The canine-dental hygienist-cum-shaman who was recommended to us is Tia Resleure. Tia is a strong, beautiful woman with wild grey hair that is tamed in back by a clip, and has a face with one of the great smiles I know. I was able to see tatoos on her arms and I assumed there are more but I didn’t ask. She lives alone with room-mates and her dogs somewhere in the bay area. Digging beneath the surface wasn’t too difficult and I discovered an amazing artist whose art incorporates taxidermy — not creepy like Joel Peter Witkin. Visit her website, which is called A Case of Curiosities. She has been attacked by folks from the Christian-right and told she would burn in hell. I encouraged her to start a blog, start up a conversation or black list ’em. I hope that I encouraged her to get over them, to go ahead and follow her marvelous muse.

At age 7, Tia’s stepfather father insisted she have braces so that she “could be more beautiful.” As a result, braces at that age can cause trauma to the teeth, and now, years later, she has very few of her original teeth left. So it appears her karma has brought her around to helping keep our dogs’ teeth tartar-free.

I had to first bring Giacometti over for his one and a half hour treatment. Tia puts the dog on his back and her thumb between the teeth and scapes off the tartar with a professional dental pick. We talked the whole time. (Next time I’ll bring my banjo.) The picture you see above is Tia pinning/dominating our second dog, Cody.

She told me about a job she had the other day where she had a half mastiff half pit bull with jaws of steel, and she had to do the tartar control number on him. She turned him into a pussy cat by the end of the session. Today, while I waited, she cleaned the teeth of a very large greyhound. While we waited, various Italian Greyhound owners and wanna-be owners sat around an outside table on a chilly Santa Monica pre-Oscar afternoon.