Katie started grooming in 2007, where she met her husband, Nathan. She quickly fell in love with both. The pair realized grooming was their true passion, and in 2019 they opened their own salon. This is when "A Cut Above" was born. Katie and Nathan have two human kids, Owain and Isolde. They also share their home with 6 dog children, Georgette and  Champion Helios the standard poodles, Ronin the English cocker spaniel, Champion Friday and her puppy Disa the Scottish terriers, and Neptune the mini poodle. Katie became a National Certified Master Groomer in 2019, and two years later became the Vice President of the Scottish Terrier Club of Northern California. Kathlena and her husband welcomed their first litter of Scottish Terrier puppies into the world in summer of 2022. Although she won Best First Time Competitor at her very first grooming competition, her true love is in showing dogs in AKC conformation. Katie loves expanding her knowledge of breed standards and dreams of someday winning at Westminster.  

Nathan has been grooming since 2007 and was the first of us to become a National Certified Master Groomer in 2017. Shortly after this already massive step in his career, Nathan jumped into competitive grooming. He won first place in poodles with a very hairy Georgette! This was just the beginning for Nathan. Nathan has won numerous first place placements, multiple group placements, A Best Overall Groomer in show award, and was nominated for Best Up and Coming Groomer of 2022! While competing has always been a dream of Nathan’s, he has been known to help in the ring for AKC conformation whenever his wife needs him. Both Nathan and Katie have mentored under Ann Martin and Nancy Han. They can do a multitude of breed specific grooms including show grooming for; English cocker spaniels, Scottish terriers, Kerry blue terriers, standard poodles, soft coated wheaton terriers, long haired and wired haired dachshunds, Irish wolfhounds, Irish Setters, English Setters, and Bedlingtons. Nathan has goals of making it onto Groom Team USA someday and continues to make strides in his education to obtain that goal. 

Kat first dipped her toes into the show world as a Junior Handler with her beautiful Maltese named Lady Roxanne. As Kat grew older, she wanted a career that involved animals, during that time she officially began her grooming career in 2005. Kat quickly found Canine Companions for Independence (a non-profit Service dog organization which provides service dogs to people with disabilities free-of-charge!). She loves raising these amazing dogs to help enhance the lives of others. She earned her National Master Groomer title in 2020. Kat shares her life with her daughter Elinor and her dogs Pixel, Sophie and Champion Lumiere. She has won muptiple awards at grooming competions and shows her bichon in akc conformation regularly.