'Creative Grooming' Leads Fan to Create Steeler Poodle

Your eyes do not deceive you. What you see at right is all natural, except for the face mask. That is, in fact, a poodle, groomed and painted to resemble a Pittsburgh Steeler.

Welcome to the world of "creative grooming," an emerging field in which poodle owners doll up their dogs to resemble, well, anything. Anything other than a poodle.

The dog you see here belongs to Justine Cosley and was photographed in Hershey, Penn., by animal photographer Ren Netherland, who goes around to "creative grooming" shows looking for new and ever-weirder poodles to photograph.

Your first thought may have been like mine: Somebody call PETA, because this can't be ethical.

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Ethics aside, you have to admit that the grooming is extremely well done and the overall effect is convincing. I can only imagine how many hours it must take to turn an ordinary poodle into a 1:6 scale Troy Polamalu. And no, of course these dogs don't look like this all the time. These special looks are created strictly for the shows, and then the poodles are returned to a more natural look.

Then again, it's pretty hard to imagine a more unnatural look, isn't it?

It's all done in the name of good fun, of course, and in some circles it's probably even considered art. The Steeler poodle in particular could warm the heart of almost any sports fan.

Please note, however, that I said almost any. I have a sneaking suspicion that, just before he wakes up sweating and screaming, Michael Vick sees 11 Steeler poodles running right at him.