The Poodle (and Dog) Blog

A shaggy dog story shows the wisdom of microchipping

I can’t resist a story about a Poodle even if it includes a really embarrassing picture of him.

After missing for 549 days from his home in Essex, England, Archie the Toy Poodle was found wandering the streets of Oxford 100 miles from home. Dog wardens were able to scan his microchip and return him to Chris and Julie Moran and their daughter, Kelly.

He had gone missing while the family spent a holiday in France in July, 2009. Although they hurried back to England, they found no trace of their dog until they got the call from Oxford.

Archie was in serious need of grooming, but he wasn’t malnourished or injured.

Where Archie has been will be forever a mystery, but, knowing how smart Poodles are, Chris Moran joked that maybe he wanted to study for a degree at Oxford. The story

To save their lives—American veterans and dogs

While four million animals are killed in shelters each year, 6570 American veterans commit suicide. That is 18 a day who are suffering so much mental anguish that life is not worth living.

This is a powerful video narrated by soldiers who have found a savior, a four legged friend to help them cope with life.

  

Dogs reunited in shelter now need a home

We love clever marketing in dog shelters so we love this story with fairy tale qualities from the New York Daily News about the BARC shelter in Williamsburg, NY.

Archie and Edith, two tiny 12-year-old mixed breed dogs, had been together since puppyhood. They were surrendered to the shelter last year when their owner went into a nursing home.

People had expressed interest in adopting one or the other, but the shelter workers thought it would be wrong to separate them. Then as if losing their owner and familiar surroundings wasn’t bad enough, someone kidnapped Edith from the shelter.

Archie was devastated. He wouldn’t eat or sleep.

Normally a dognapping at a shelter wouldn’t be a priority to law enforcement, but the thief was caught on surveillance tape walking away with Edith under her coat. Hearing of Archie’s distress, detectives were able to bring the thief to justice within four days and return Edith to the shelter.

To celebrate the reunion, the shelter workers put on a civil wedding ceremony conducted by a minister, according to Vinny Spinola, Shelter Director.

OK, I know what some of you are thinking. A silly dog wedding. But here’s the thing: it was somehow a fundraiser, and $1500 was raised to purchase dog beds.

The story doesn’t say, but I assume guests were charged to attend the event instead of having to bring a toaster or something. The wedding angle also got their story into the newspaper and on the internet with a color picture of two cute little dogs who need a home together. Does anyone doubt they will find a home?

Because of clever marketing with a true fairy tale ending, no doubt they will live happily ever after.

Complete story including an explanation of animal bonding.

Chihuahua wins pet-celebrity look-alike contest dressed as Donald Trump

In other breaking news also from the New York Daily News, a Chihuahua named Bandit Rubio has trumped the competition dressed as Donald Trump.

Appearing in a custom-made pinstripe suit, red tie and what might possibly be a brown toupee comb over, Bandit appeared before the judges as his owner, Anthony Rubio, tried to intimidate them with “You’re fired.”

A classic video—“Please adopt Pinky”

This video has been around for at least 10 or 15 years. You may have seen it on TV long before You Tube picked it up.

It is unforgettable.

The people at the animal shelter were doing a segment for local TV on adopting shelter pets. Pinky the cat was chosen "Pet of the Week" as a beautiful, sweet tempered cat who would make someone a nice pet.

But once the camera started rolling, Pinky had other ideas.

Strange as it seems, a lot of people stepped forward and actually wanted to adopt this, shall we say, “spirited” cat.

 

"Outside of a dog a book is man's best friend...

Inside of a dog it's too dark to read."  -Groucho Marx

More of Groucho

"If a black cat crosses your path, it signifies that the animal is going somewhere."

"One morning I shot an elephant in my pajamas. How he got in my pajamas I'll never know."

"Just give me a comfortable couch, a dog, a good book, and a woman. Then if you can get the dog to go somewhere and read the book, I might have a little fun."

"When you're in jail, a good friend will be trying to bail you out. A best friend will be in the cell next to you saying, 'Damn, that was fun'."

Here is a video of Groucho singing his classic "Show Me a Rose" on the Dick Cavett Show in 1972 when he was 81-years-old.
As Cavett says, Nobody ever gets tired of hearing
"Show Me a Rose."

If you haven't heard it, well, you shouldn't go through life
without hearing Groucho sing "Show Me a Rose."

  When someone asks "How are you?" try saying, "So am I."

 

How about a vacation in sunny Florida…

for you and your dog?
Welcome my new sponsor, Vacation Rental Pros, see sidebar.

If you’re a little tired of snow and freezing temperatures, it may be time to thaw out in the Florida sun. This site offers many pet friendly vacation rental homes and condos for you to browse. You can choose one that is close to a beach or park that welcomes dogs.

You will have no costly dog boarding fees, no worries about how your dog is doing while you are basking in the sun and walking along the beach. You won’t have to worry about trying to find accommodations in a motel than will accept dogs. Pack your swimsuit, toothbrush, and frisbee.

Bring your family and your dog. You all deserve it.

“TWO LEGS GOOD—FOUR LEGS BAD”

Whether Treasure the Poodle has been reading George Orwell or just likes the attention, he can walk for about half an hour or up to 1000 meters on two legs.

Let’s hope he doesn’t get all pissy and adopt human bad behavior like the Animal Farm gang did.

Treasure even enjoys being a fashion plate, wearing his little snowsuit with the… uh… [cough] convenient cutout.

Treasure belongs to Dou Xianhui of China (a country that censors blogs—as I may have mentioned one or two fifty times).

I would be a little concerned for his little skeletal system and his joints later in life. I have heard that one of the reasons humans have back problems is that we insist on walking upright, believing as we do that “two legs good—four legs bad.”

Former 49er star donates money for a service dog

Brent Jones is a four time Pro Bowler with three Super Bowl rings. He retired from the San Francisco 49ers in 1998, but recently he became a different kind of hero.

After reading about Louis Navin, a 9-year-old boy with epilepsy, he wrote a check for $10,000 to buy him a service dog.

The medical service dog, a brown Labrador named Button, is trained to “wear a magnetic collar on his neck. When the boy has a seizure the magnetic force will be transmitted to a generator inserted in Louis’ chest which will send electronic messages to the boy's brain and calm his seizures.”

Louis is the youngest of seven children of Tom Navin, a 25-year veteran of the San Jose Police Department, now chief pilot at the San Jose airport and mother, Andi Navin, a high school teacher. They have been trying to raise enough money to buy the dog while still providing for their other children and paying Louis’ extensive medical bills.

Louis has had to sleep with his parents who keep the magnets by their night stands. Now the dog will allow Louis to have more independence.

Jones, who co-owns an investment firm with two former teammates, usually prefers to keep his donation anonymous, but he decided to go public with this story.

"This dog isn't just going to change the boy's life," Jones said. "It's going to change the whole family's."

More from the San Jose Mercury News

Beverly Hills Chihuahua 2—A review

My fellow movie critic, 11-year-old Damon, and I both gave this a thumbs up. From Disney studios, it is suitable for children of all ages and most adults.

There may be hopeless grumps (like professional film critics) who won’t like it, but they should probably be avoided at all costs. Cat people may not like the film so much. We forgive them.

What Damon and I like in dog movies is more dogs, fewer people. In this one there are no evil people trying to kidnap dogs for wealth, experiments, or fur coats. But there are German Shepherds, a Pit Bull, a Bulldog, and a whole dog show, complete with the talent portion.

In the beginning the privileged but unspoiled Beverly Hills Chihuahua Chloe marries her soul mate, Papi, a rescue dog in real life and in the movie. In a short time they have five highly trained, totally adorable talking baby Chihuahuas to light up the screen.

Thanks to technology, their mouths move when they speak, but only other dogs and the audience can hear them. George Lopez, one of the world’s truly funny people, is the voice of Papi. His laidback parenting skills lead the puppies into various funny situations. One of the best parts of the movie is the bedtime stories he tells the Chihuahua puppies to inspire them to greatness.

The plot involves the family in danger of having their house foreclosed by a banker who is a cat person. It is up to the dogs to raise the money to keep the house.

First they try to win the Beverly Hills Dog Show, but they are thwarted by a snotty Poodle. (Poodle people may not like this, but get over yourselves.)

Then the puppies accidentally blunder into a bank robbery in progress and naturally no inept bank robbers can outwit cute dogs.

“Beverly Hills Chihuahua 2” isn’t “Babe,” but it is a good family movie with a lot of laugh out loud moments. We can expect that the BH Chihuahuas will be around for many more numbers as the studio plays out all the cute little talking dog jokes.

I received a copy of the DVD for review. It will be available in stores on February 1. Or you can pre-order from Amazon. See sidebar.

 

Groomer celebrates the return of a trolley with a Pink Poodle

I guess there are all kinds of things in life to celebrate and all kinds of ways to celebrate them.

If one has a large Poodle and is a media whore enjoys being on television, grooming one’s Poodle to look like a trolley is probably a pretty harmless way to celebrate.

According to KSDK in St. Louis, Christina Lorton, owner of Delmar Doggie Design, was so inspired by the return of a trolley to the area that she decorated Petra her Poodle to look like a pink trolley.

This wasn’t just a spontaneous celebration.

The coat had to grow out for five months and the cutting and dyeing took six hours. According to Lorton,

We had to grow her out to a length that was workable that we could sculpt, shape and color. Every two weeks for five months. It was a very tedious process for us. So she gets lots of cookies and love.

The trolley project will cost an estimated $44 million, but $25 million is free will be paid for by the federal government. Construction is expected to begin later in the year and “if all goes as planned the trolley will be up and running from the Delmar Loop to Forest Park next year.”

Petra will spend two weeks looking like a trolley and then will be allowed to look like a Poodle again.