The Poodle (and Dog) Blog

Pixie the Chipoo

This is Pixie, a totally adorable seventeen-month-old Chipoo, a cross between a Poodle and a Chihuahua. (Couldn’t she also be called a Poohuahua?)

While dog purists are outraged at the popularity of these mixed breedings (sometimes called designer dogs) (sometimes called accidents), many veterinarians believe that this is a way of avoiding genetic defects that can be present in purebred dogs.

Mixed breed puppies even from the same litter can look different, depending on whether they resemble the father or the mother or both.

Pixie the Chipoo seems to have physical characteristics of both parents, with more of a Poodle face and head but with the “I’ll-hear-everything-that-goes-on-and-tell-you-about-it” Chihuahua ears. (Floppy ears tend to have more problems with moisture, ear mites, etc.)

Chipoos usually, but not always, have coats more like the Chihuahua than the Poodle coat which doesn’t stop growing and needs frequent trimming.

Poodles and Poodle hybrids may be a good choice for allergy sufferers, but every dog and every person has a somewhat different chemistry. The dogs may be hypoallergenic, but they are not non-allergenic.

Pixie belongs to Darin from Texas who says she loves to play with ping-pong balls and is the most playful dog you will ever meet. She’s never growled or bitten anyone. She loves to wear clothes, go places and cuddle.

“I just feel so blessed to have gotten her, she is most definitely a one of a kind,” Darin wrote.

The dogs of President Clinton

When Bill Clinton and his family moved into the White House, Socks the cat was the only pet they brought.

But during his second term of office, possibly to serve as a distraction from the news of the day, the Clintons acquired a dog, Buddy.

The news of the time would include the cigar, the stain on that blue dress from The Gap, Monica Lewinsky, lying to a grand jury, having his law license suspended, impeachment, bombing an aspirin factory in Sudan, and uncertainty about what the meaning of the word “is” is.

It was believed by those who believe such things that a dog would distract public attention and help to rehabilitate the President’s image.

Buddy was a chocolate Labrador Retriever, carefully chosen to project the right image for the President. The Lab has been the most popular dog in the US for many years. Buddy is one of the most popular dog names. Chocolate brown photographs well against dark Presidential suits, but doesn’t draw attention away from the human the way the color gold would.

Many photos and stories were carried about Buddy, even including his feud with Socks the cat.

Unfortunately, Buddy was not a distraction for very long. Some people convinced the President that as a conscientious dog owner, he should have Buddy neutered.

And that brought the whole thing back, as some people started thinking —”maybe the wrong…”

Oh, you’re way ahead of me on this, aren’t you?

The dogs of President Kennedy

From his early years through his political career, John Kennedy was an avid dog lover. He was often photographed with a dog; his choice was usually a Maltese, Papillion, Poodle, or French Bulldog.

Ha ha, just messing with you.

Like most male politicians, he was usually photographed with retrievers or setters. During the White House years he requested that the dogs be trained to greet the Presidential helicopter when it arrived back at the White House.

The Presidential dogs included an Irish Wolfhound, a German Shepherd, and an Irish Cocker Spaniel.

However, the favorite was Charlie, a little Welsh Terrier who was his daughter Caroline’s dog. Charlie was famous for playfully nipping at the gardeners as they tended the White House lawn.

At the height of the Cuban missile crisis when there was some doubt about whether civilization as we knew it would last beyond the next day or explode in a nuclear holocaust, President Kennedy had Charlie brought to the chaos of the War Room.

Traphes Bryant, the White House kennel keeper, describes the events.

"I was there in Jack Kennedy's office that day. Everything was in an uproar. I was then feet from Kennedy's desk as Pierre Salinger ran around the office taking messages and issuing orders while the President sat looking awfully worried. There was talk about the Russian fleet coming in and our fleet blocking them off. It looked like war. Out of the blue, Kennedy suddenly called for Charlie to be brought to his office."

After petting Charlie for a while, the president relaxed, gave Charlie back to the kennel keeper, and calmly said, "I suppose that it's time to make some decisions."

The President made some decisions. The Russians backed off. The world went on.
As a sign of friendship and a peace offering, Soviet Premier Khrushchev gave Caroline Kennedy a furry mongrel named Pushinka, who was the puppy of a Russian space dog Strelka. Not worrying about differing ideologies, Pushinka and Charlie had four puppies together.

The President referred to them as the pupniks.

Toilet Paper Olympics for dogs and cats

Misty the alpha Poodle here.

I don’t normally write on blogs, being more of a print manual Poodle, but it occurs to me that some dogs may need some instruction on a great indoor sport.
Our friend Brody at Secret Schnoodle locked himself in the bathroom and missed out on having a great time in there.

See that white roll hanging on the wall where the arrow is pointing? When you pull on it, it grows. No, seriously. Yards and yards of white paper that you can drag all over the house. And tear into little pieces. Even cats like to play with it and cats don’t like to do much that is fun.

When your human sees it, act like you have no idea where it came from. They’ll just laugh. You know how that goes.

Humphrey the Humping Chihuahua

Are you too popular? Do you get constant invitations to social events? Are you tired of endless rounds of dinner parties?

Humphrey can help.

File this under truly tasteless, but still funny in a truly tasteless way.

Attach Humphrey the humping toy Chihuahua to your leg (or that of your hostess), “squeeze his ear, and he barks and gyrates doggy style. He gets faster and noisier and finally finishes with a satisfied sigh.”

Great for parties and polite social gatherings. This will undoubtedly assure that you will never be invited back. Anywhere. Again. Ever. $29.89

Scroll past CAHONES THE SINGING CHIHUAHUA (funny but even more tasteless) at this website

The Shih Tsu hits the fan in Texas

Mayor is indicted for dognapping.

I have been following all the captivating machinations of this doggy soap opera for a while even though I haven’t posted anything about it. But now it’s beginning to get even more intriguing.

It all started last summer when Rudy Gutierrez and Shelly Cavazos asked their neighbor, Grace Saenz-Lopez, the Mayor of Alice, Texas, to watch their Shih Tsu while they took their four children to an amusement park. Puddles the Shih Tsu was deathly ill at the time.

The next day the mayor called them with the sad news that Puddles had died. But Alice is a small town of 19,000 and it didn’t take long to find out that the mayor had faked the dog’s death and was hiding him.

When a relative of Cavazos spotted Puddles at a local grooming shop, the mayor had to admit she had him. But she still refused to give him up, claiming they were unfit owners.

According to Gutierrez, the mayor refused to return his phone calls so he filed a police report accusing the mayor of dog theft. The county attorney declared it a civil matter.

So Gutierrez and Cavazos filed a civil lawsuit against the mayor demanding the return of Puddles and financial compensation for attorney’s fees and their emotional trauma. The lawyer for the mayor contended that Gutierrez and Cavazos cared more for their family vacation than the health of the dog.

A civil court hearing was scheduled for Feb. 4 to determine who should keep him. Then on Jan. 13, the mayor (who at this point seems to have the intellectual capacity of clam dip) filed a police report claiming that Puddles, who she now called Panchito, had gone missing. She accused Gutierrez and Cavazos.

However, a crack local reporter did some investigative work and two days later discovered Puddles/Panchito at the home of the mayor’s twin sister, a member of the school board.

Now it became a criminal case and on Jan.18 the mayor was indicted by a grand jury on charges of concealing and falsifying evidence. Each count is punishable by as many as 10 years in prison. Her sister also faces felony charges.

Interesting isn’t it? You can steal a dog and it’s a civil matter, but lying to the police can be a felony, even for the mayor of a city.

Meanwhile the citizens of Alice, Texas resent being a statewide joke: “You’re from Alice? Your mayor steals dogs.”

As the Shih Tsu turns…All my Shih Tsus…The Bold and the Shih Tsu…

UPDATE: (April 24) Judge rules that Puddles will be returned to original owners.

A Dog about Town—a book review

From the opening lines to the Epilogue cliffhanger, A Dog about Town by J.F. Englert will intrigue and delight anyone who loves mysteries, or dogs—or even books. It opens:

“Lyell Overton Minskoff-Hardy, literary light and cultural personage, perished a few days before Christmas beneath a stainless steel toilet on the Upper West Side of Manhattan. With his fly open. Harry, my owner, prone to accept all explanations involving the paranormal, believed the death had a supernatural flourish.

“Almost from the start I thought Harry quite mistaken. Overton’s death had nothing to do with ghosts, spirits, or the occult and everything to do with science, human nastiness and greed.”

As it turns out, Harry is quite mistaken, but Randolph, the narrator, has the instincts of a first rate detective. And an incredible sense of smell.

That’s because Randolph is a Labrador Retriever with the ability to read, reason, remember and calculate. Although he has refined tastes and a love of Dante, he is not above a roll in the stinkiest sidewalk pâté when it presents itself.

Nor is he one of those dogs who thinks he is superior to humans (although he clearly is). He is after all a Labrador with the loyal, humble sweetness of the breed. And like many Labradors, he is somewhat prone to chubbiness because his distracted owner feeds him a lot of take-out and doesn’t exercise him enough.

As the book begins, their beloved Imogene has been missing for almost a year. She went out to buy bread after work and never returned. In spite of a massive police search, only her red beret ever turned up.

While Randolph searches for clues to her disappearance in his beloved mistress’ journal, Harry turns to the occult for answers. A mysterious invitation to a séance brings Harry to the apartment of the murder and the lives of the suspects.

As Randolph goes about solving the murder, he realizes his doggy limitations. He must get Harry’s help. But how? Letting Harry know of his incredible brain would lead to having scientists study him with electrodes attached to his cerebral cortex.

And then he hits on a means of communication—Alpha Bits, Harry’s favorite cereal. With great effort because they stick to his wet nose, Randolph spells out clues to the mystery with the sticky cereal. Harry the innocent thinks the spiritual world is working through his dog.

As they solve the murders (there are three), they also get some hints about what has happened to their beloved Imogene.

Randolph shows us the world of humans through the eyes of an urbane dog, but he is at his best when he describes a discourse with other animals such as the tree sloth. Or when he classifies the five going “number 1 and number 2” preferences of city dogs. (Randolph would never use pee or poop. He is, after all, a refined “Foliage-Finder,” not a “Squat-and-Drop.”)

This is the first book in what I hope will be a series of mysteries written by a talented writer in the persona (dogona?) of a most remarkable dog. There are a lot of human amateur detectives and quite a few cats who solve mysteries. Readers of the world need Randolph.

The sequel will be published this year and after reading the Epilogue, I can’t wait.

A Dog about Town by J.F. Englert is a Dell paperback - $6.99

New Mystery topic #6

Blog Ninjas is a forum founded by the gracious and talented Jayne D’Arcy and a group of like-minded bloggers. Among the activities is a Mystery Topic. We all write on the same topic and then vote for the best one. The winner gets to choose the next topic. Please visit the Mystery Topic Challenge Blog to view all of the other entries. Once you've read them all, please be sure to vote HERE in the Sidebar for your favorite.

This is the current topic:

You know how you can be driving along, just minding your own business and suddenly a song will come on the radio that transports you through space and time so clearly and thoroughly that you miss your exit or rear end the car in front of you?

Here's your topic: What song transports you through space and time, and where do you go?

Doing stand up comedy is a popular dream. Mine started several years ago with a song by Billy Joel. Here’s how it happened.

After nineteen years of marriage, Clueless (not his real name) the father of my children, decided that there was more to life so he moved out. He soon had an apartment, a new car and a girl friend.

We knew about the girl friend because Clueless had always walked Schopenhauer, our Old English Sheepdog, in the dark evenings. When it fell to me to walk her, being an instinctive creature of pattern and habit, she took twists and turns through the streets and we ended up in front of the girl friend’s apartment.

Standing out there in the dark, I had to laugh at the whole situation. Here was all the material for a really bad country western song or a comedy routine. It was liberating in ways that are hard to explain. Schopi the Sheepdog had the best sense of humor of any dog I’ve ever had. She understood.

One Saturday soon after, Clueless took our children, ages 12 and 17, on an all day trip to Yosemite.

At the time I was getting involved in our local community theatre group. I had gone to an audition, hoping for a small part and had gotten the lead in the play “Never Too Late.”

That Saturday we all got together at the theatre to mail out thousands of season ticket subscription flyers. It was afternoon when I left the house. After our work was finished, we all went to a local club to dance. By the time I got home both kids were asleep in their rooms.

Clueless came over the next day and insisted that we go out to the patio for a chat, where he reproached me for my lack of responsibility the day before, ending with “…and MY children had to walk into a dark house alone.”

Too much irony. Too much hypocrisy. Too funny. I just burst out laughing. “Children” who were larger than I was, entering a dark house with many light switches, a house closely guarded by an Old English Sheepdog.

As I walked into the house, the whole universe seemed to converge right there as Billy Joel was singing:

“… he gives them a stand-up routine in L.A.

I don't need you to worry for me cause I'm alright
I don't want you to tell me it's time to come home
I don't care what you say anymore, this is my life
Go ahead with your own life, and leave me alone.”

The words of the song fit the moment perfectly.

Through the years when I hear “My Life,” I hark back to that day and fantasize about doing stand-up in L.A. It’s all about seeing the humor and practicing the delivery.

But seriously, folks…you can hear Billy Joel sing “My Life” here.

Refilling dog drinking bowl

Why do dogs drink out of toilet bowls? Because they can. They will do this even when their water bowls are full. No one knows why. Dogs do a lot of things we’ll never understand. They probably don't understand why humans pee in drinking bowls.

This question comes up with startling regularity in dog forums. You shouldn’t let them drink out of the toilet bowl. The reasons are obvious and the solution is simple. Keep the lid down. It’s that easy.

But this doggie drinking bowl is funny in a tasteless kind of way. You fill a 2 liter plastic bottle with water, place it in the tank and gravity fills the bowl as the dog drinks. Made from grazed ceramic.

Measures 12” x 6 3/8” x 10 3/8” $14.99 from this website.

“Drawn from nature”—a new meaning

John James Audubon, an American artist, painted over 400 birds of North America over a period of 20 years.

“Drawn from nature" is a term that appeared on every painting. However that doesn’t mean that he sat in the woods with his brushes, paints and easel while the birds posed for him.

Far from being a conservationist, Audubon shot the birds and took them to his studio where he wired them in poses. Afterward he found them quite tasty. You can look it up.

I’m mentioning this because it puts in some perspective an ongoing, recent, and quite unpleasant carnage nature drama taking place in…you know [cough] Malaysia.