The Poodle (and Dog) Blog

Harry Potter never had it this good

Poncho the Chihuahua has his very own room and it could not be cuter.

His owner, Betty McCall of Pitts, Georgia, along with her two sisters and a carpenter created a personalized room under the stairs.

She said that Poncho gets nervous when there are a lot of people visiting so she had a dog crate for him to get away from it all. But why settle for a crate when he can have his own bachelor pad?

Her sisters helped with the furnishings and accessories. He has a bed (American Girl thrift store  - $4.00);  a framed oil  painting of dogs playing poker – (yard sale - 25¢); a lamp; decorative antlers with his sombrero hanging from them; a tiny dresser; and a miniature piano.

Poncho has the run of the house, but his little apartment is his personal retreat when he is feeling stressful.

An electrician even put in a tiny outlet in case he needs an electric blanket.

She admits that he is terribly spoiled.

We never would have guessed.

No one ever said criminals were smart…

 
but sometimes they seem unbelievably stupid.

Police say a man broke into a home on Martha’s Vineyard in the daytime, took a few things and painted the resident dog purple.

But wait, there’s more.

Police responded to a call to a neighborhood around 2:30 pm when it was reported that a man had stolen a vehicle, crashed it and then fled on foot. Soon after, they responded to a nearby home where someone had broken in a first floor window, stolen prescription pills, a driver’s license and credit cards and painted their dog purple.

Police soon arrested Felix Reagan.

It seems he had purple paint on his pants which matched the dog.

Wait, there's still more.

As he was being taken to the police station, officers say Reagan tried to kick out the windows of the cruiser and kicked a police officer. He is being charged with auto theft, breaking and entering in the daytime with the intent to commit a felony, burglary, cruelty to animals, assault on a police officer, resisting arrest and other related crimes.

The dog received no serious injuries.

It is unclear whether Reagan has a lawyer who is laughing his ass off could comment on the case.

Defending Ryan

USA Today did an extensive investigation of the Ryan Lockte incident.

(Now there’s a radical idea for journalism—investigating instead of repeating rumors, ignoring facts, and embellishing a story.)

 

Investigators found Lochte and his teammates are not entirely in the wrong and that the Rio police chief may also have a slight case of pants on fire. 

… a narrative of the night’s events – constructed by USA TODAY Sports from witness statements, official investigations, surveillance videos and media reports – supports Lochte’s later account in which he said he thought the swimmers were being robbed when they were approached at a gas station by armed men who flashed badges, pointed guns at them and demanded money. Source

 

There is no evidence of vandalism in the rest room or even that they entered it. Yet I’m still reading that they broke a mirror, a soap dispenser and some sources even throw in a door. According to eye witnesses and surveillance, they didn’t enter the rest room.

The swimmers urinated behind the building and Lochte tore down an advertisement from a wall. Then they attempted to leave the area.

There is evidence that security guards who could have been off duty police flashed badges, pulled guns and demanded money in Portuguese. If I were in a foreign country and men pulled guns on me demanding money I probably would wet myself think I was being robbed.

The swimmers had been partying, drinking, and celebrating their gold medals. With the language barrier and their diminished capacities, it isn’t difficult to see why Lochte may have thought they had been robbed as he “over exaggerated” the story. It isn't a false police report if you really think it happened.

 

Genetics has been very good to Ryan Lochte. He has served successfully as a fashion model, company spokesman, TV star, role model, and world class athlete with 12 Olympic medals and over 90 medals overall.

One inebriated night of celebration should not cancel out a brilliant career. He has taken responsibility for his actions. I’m sure he has learned a life lesson. I want him to be forgiven. I want to see him representing this country and winning medals in Tokyo.

 

If you can’t forgive him, you can always vote him off of Dancing with the Stars -- or as I call it Dancing with People Who Are More Famous Than Most People-- since I usually don’t know most of the “stars” who are on it.

 

 

Yeezy and Carter Lochte
(Ryan's Frenchie and Dobie)

Two dogs make news after the earthquake in Italy

One of the purposes of dogs seems to be to bring joy to the most catastrophic events.

 

Pope Francis shook the paw and blessed a dog named Leo who was part of a rescue team looking for survivors after the devastating earthquake that took nearly 300 lives.

The black Labrador Retriever was part of a rescue team that found a 4-year-old girl alive in the rubble that was once her home. She was in the embrace of her sister who had been killed.

The pope also spent time with Leo’s handler and his fellow rescuers.

Nine days after the deadly earthquake, a Golden Retriever named Romeo has emerged from the rubble.

Rescuers located the dog after accompanying Romeo’s owners to the rubble of their former home to collect belongings. As soon as he heard their voices he began barking.

His owners who had been sleeping on the second floor were able to escape, but Romeo became trapped on the first floor. They searched for hours before they were forced to evacuate the village because of heavy aftershocks.

In true doggie fashion Romeo wagged his tail when he was released from the rubble with no hint of the ordeal he had been through.

The loyalty of two dogs is making news across the world

In Italy rescuers laid out coffins for victims of the earthquake. A blonde Cocker Spaniel refused to leave the side of his human during a mass funeral held for the victims. The dog was photographed in a gymnasium where the funerals took place. The earthquake took the lives of 291 people.

 

And in Spain a dog named Maya is keeping a six day vigil outside the doors of hospital in Alicante. Maya is waiting for her owner, 22-year-old Sandra Iniesta, who had emergency surgery.

While she and her father were traveling, she developed an intense pain in her abdomen. Following a stop at a hospital, she underwent an appendectomy. In spite of the best efforts of Sandra's father, Maya refuses to leave the hospital.

The August Golden Poodle awards

The Golden Poodle award goes to Gobi, the little stray dog who picked out her running mate and new owner from a field of 101 runners at the 155-mile extreme Marathon in China.

Then while she was waiting for her quarantine to begin so she could join him in Scotland, she slipped away, probably to search for her running mate, and got lost. Fortunately the story had another happy ending.

 

 

The Lizard Brain award goes to Bic for the pink and purple fake jewel-encrusted gender specific Bic for Her pens, designed for women—who apparently the company thinks are too dumb to use regular pens.

 

  

 

The Neanderthal award goes to the municipal officials who pass laws banning certain breeds of dogs as dangerous without considering individual dogs.

 

Special August recognition goes to Rio for staging a tremendously successful Olympics even though the world thought it would be a disaster.