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| Volume 3, Issue 3 |
International Parti Poodle Gazette |
July 2007 |
ALL’S WELL THAT ENDS WELLBy Mary WinburnLooking at the picture of my parti puppies Molly (six months old) and Murphy (ten months old), one would think they are kind of cute. Don’t let their good looks fool you! My husband Beau called me at work today to tell me he had found five sprinkler heads pulled up, chewed on, and strewn around the yard. When he went to turn on the pump to find out where the sprinkler heads had been attached, it didn’t work – all the wires to the well head had been chewed! After bringing tools out to mend the damage, he realized he had forgotten a required tool and went to get it. When he returned, the wrench he had placed on top of his tool pile had disappeared. About that time, Murphy trotted past carrying the wrench in his mouth, with Molly chasing him. Beau called but Murphy would not come . . . so a grand game of chase began. After about five minutes, my overweight husband gave up the pursuit, went to get another wrench, and proceeded to fix the damage. As soon as Beau began working on the well, Murphy came over and plopped down in the dirt beside him with the wrench still in his mouth . . . and proceeded to pass gas! To make matters worse, Molly trampled all over Beau trying to get the wrench from Murphy. Of course, I didn’t endear myself to my hubby by laughing hysterically as he was telling the story – pray please, that I get to keep these puppies!!! By the way, my red Standard boy was lying quietly in the grass, probably chuckling at the whole scene.
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MY OWN PERSONAL “TIM ALLEN”By Denise SpotilaBrookside Casa Standard Parti Poodles Yesterday morning, I let my seven freshly groomed Poodles out on the deck where they all immediately ran into the back yard. Suddenly, I heard splashing. Splashing? I looked over the deck rail and saw that the yard had about half-a-foot of water covering it . . . and the Poodles were having a blast! The well pipe between the house and the pump had sprung a leak . . . or should I say a gusher. Of course, my husband Dave had to fix it himself (No one else could do it correctly, right?), so we were without water all day. He turned it on awhile in the evening even though it was still leaking so we could fill buckets for the toilets. Oh, it just gets better. In addition to the “lake” in the backyard, I now also have a hole in the front yard about 10 feet around and 8 feet deep, mud-ball Poodles, and a mud-splattered house. The reason we have a 10’ x 8’ hole is because my thrifty husband decided to rent a backhoe to try and find the leak. Then, he figured as long as he had the backhoe, he would go ahead and dig footings for a new concrete dog yard and new front deck. Using floodlights, he started working at 11:00 p.m. Unfortunately, he did not consider that there would be buried wires, gas lines . . . stuff like that. My own personal Tim Allen a.k.a. Tim the Toolman Taylor!! At 3:00 a.m., the utility company was here. This morning, the phone company was still working on the phone line. On the bright side, I did get all the dogs re-groomed. Oh, yeah . . . they are predicting snow and ice through Sunday. Yippee! No mud for at least a few days. A bottle of wine is on ice . . .
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POODLE PUPPY FANTASIESAuthor Dr. Kelly CassidySome people believe dogs lack imagination. I think my eight-month-old Standard Poodle Alder disproves that theory. Besides Alder, we have a creaky, asocial 13-year-old Brittany Spaniel and an eight-year-old mixed breed named Camas. Alder is not allowed to rough-house with the Brittany who is too fragile to cope with a muscular, energetic teenager. However, Camas will wrestle with Alder . . . or, more likely, she will tolerate his enthusiastic games. Unfortunately for Alder, Camas has no interest in toys or in playing tug. No matter how often he shoves his toys at her, she refuses to covet them or chase him to try and get them.
One of Alder’s games is tossing a tennis ball and then pouncing on it. Sometimes, the tennis ball drifts in Camas’s direction, usually with a little help from Alder who is, as usual, trying to tease her into becoming interested in his ball. A typical scenario of this game: Camas is lying on her side on the floor napping. The tennis ball rolls close to her head. She doesn’t move, except to open an eye. But, to Alder, since the tennis ball is next to Camas’s head, she might be guarding the tennis ball . . . WANTING the tennis ball!!! Alder yaps shrilly, similar to the noise he makes when Camas has a chewy he wants. He leaps in and then back, pretending Camas might snap at him if he gets too close. Camas closes her eyes and goes back to sleep, doing her best to ignore this silly puppy. Alder snatches the tennis ball and bounds away, tail in the air, proud of himself for so skillfully getting his tennis ball back. I think this puppy has a future as a doggy fiction writer.
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