
Lee Mei-chen steps back after almost three hours of cut and craft to view her work, a teddy bear trimmed into the fur of a patient dog.

The teddy bear design is one of the most complex in the furry repertoire of the 30-year-old Taiwanese hairdresser turned pet groomer. She also shaves paw prints, lion faces and characters from Japanese brand Hello Kitty on to animal backs.

Ou Shih-jou, owner of the salon where Lee works in southern Taiwan, said the quirky pet patterns came from owners wanting something different to the normal summer shave, with designs determined by the natural assets of the pets.

One eye-catching motif involves shaving a spiky spine into the back of a cat, leaving it looking like a stegosaurus. "When a cat gets angry, the fur on its back erects, that made us come up with "stegosaurus design"," said Ou. "It (makes the cat) look like a small dinosaur. The owners were happy after they came back to see it, thinking it was quite creative."

Ou opened the salon in September and has seen big interest from the public, with the pets posing for pictures on leaving the salon. "When walking outside, people think it's amazing and magical. Everyone wants to take a photograph and see what kind of styles they came up with," pet owner Kuo Yu-lan said.