The Stained Towels

By Charlene Dunlap

Recently, my husband Glenn was washing our motorcoach using numerous small, white towels to dry the outside surfaces. When towels became too wet to function properly, he hung them to dry over the edge of a nearby picnic table, its benches, and other vertical surfaces in the area. White towels checkered the landscape. I sat at the picnic table sipping lemonade, entertaining him with the latest intrigue in the mystery I was reading.

“Speaking of mysteries,” he said, eyeing me suspiciously, “I’ve been noticing yellow stains on some of my towels. Do you know anything about that?”

Nearly choking on a mouthful of lemonade, I sputtered, “Are you accusing me?!”

“Not you,” he said, “I’m talking about your curly-headed boy.”

Out of the corner of my eye, I noticed my Standard Poodle Jyah cocking an inquisitive ear. “You think Jyah stained your towels?” I said indignantly. “No way! Jyah is very respectful of other people’s property.”

Knowing that silence is one of the hardest arguments to refute, Glenn let the matter drop, but I could tell he was not convinced. I decided to keep an eye on Jyah. Sure enough, later that day I saw him leaving a few sprinkles of yellow water on one of the towels. His thinking, no doubt, was that Glenn had put out these “marking posts” expressively for that purpose.

The sometimes regretful thing about my quest for truth is that I often find it. But, I probably won’t tell Glenn that I did.

Poodle Power

Author: Marci Faustini

Laco is my three-year-old, 28 inch, 75 pound, brown Standard Poodle who lives to swim and retrieve tennis balls. His swimming mate is my daughter Jamie, a six-year-old girl who loves the water. This seemed to me to be a good combination for water sports. I decided to hook Jamie’s swimboard to Laco, throw a ball, and see what happened.

I attached a line from Laco’s collar to Jamie’s colorful swimboard and threw his tennis ball out into the water. Laco glanced back at Jamie then took off after the ball with Jamie skimming along behind. Save gas, get Poodle power!!!

Window Peepers

Author: Mary Winburn
http://www.flickr.com/photos/poodlemomma/

The first time it happened, I had let my pack of five Poodles out in my fenced back yard for their morning exercise and had gone into my bedroom to get ready for work. Suddenly, I heard a strange rustling noise outside my window. I looked over and saw a shadow that was moving. Someone was out there peeping in my window! Why weren’t the dogs barking?!

The walkway going to our backyard runs parallel to my bedroom windows and there are bushes between the walkway and the windows. The sliding glass door where the Poodles go in and out is in the next room over. This is where they patiently wait to be let back in. So, who could be looking in my window? The thought scared me to death!!

Gathering up my courage, I went over to the window. There was my oldest boy Clifford standing waist deep in the bushes with his front paws on the window sill looking into the bedroom. I suppose he wanted to see if I was there and to tell me to hurry up and let him in.

This has been going on for quite awhile now, and I’m used to it. However, now Clifford is recruiting new Poodle peepers. Last night I heard more than the usual amount of rustling outside my window. Sure enough, alongside Clifford was my new puppy with his little paws on the window sill looking in. Geeze, I never have any privacy!

Bread Dog

Author: Lee Beringsmith
Graphic drawn by Charlene Dunlap

My old dog Ben was a bread dog – loved anything that was a bakery item. Once, I had stopped by the grocery store in the evening to pick up a few things and, as it was getting late, I put the bags on the kitchen counter planning to put everything away in the morning.

The next morning as I got out of bed, my bare feet landed on something that felt very strange. Looking down, I saw a loaf of raisin bread next to Ben’s dog bed. When I went downstairs, I found empty wrappers from two packages of bagels.

Ben apparently had gone downstairs in the middle of the night, taken the two bagel packages out of the grocery bags on the counter, and ate all 12 bagels. Then, being the clever dog he was, he carried the raisin bread back to his bed just in case he needed a little snack later.