ELVIS AND THE POODIDDLE GANG

This is the story of a dog… no, two dogs, okay, three dogs and how they came to be the POODIDDLE GANG!

Once there was a girl, she was a kind girl with an open heart and an empty home. She spent her days working hard and her weekends helping animals. She especially liked to help animals that were thought of as beyond help, the ones that no one wanted. You know the ones you see in the ads on TV for the ASPCA. They always bring tears to your eyes…

And, once there was a dog, a small dog, he was a smart dog with a good heart and no one to call his own. He wandered the streets of the big city making his way anyway he could. Until the dogcatcher picked him and brought him to the shelter the kind girl was volunteering at.

They met through bars, this kind girl and smart dog. She opened the cage and held him close but knew he was meant for someone else. So she put him back. His last day at the shelter came but no one wanted this smart dog with the good heart and the kind girl could not stand the thought of what would happen next, so that was when ELVIS came to live with her…

ELVIS was very smart and knew he had it good with the kind girl so the very first night, he marked her as his own while she slept! Now he was a little confused at the scream when she bolted up right out of bed covered in his pee. You see he thought he was paying her the highest of compliments… He soon realized this was not so, and that was the last time he complimented her like that.

After a while, things settled down and they grew accustomed to one another, but ELVIS was lonely when the girl went off to work during the day. He did not understand why he could not go. So the girl thought about it and decided a companion for ELVIS was the answer.

The girl searched hi and lo, and in between. She was going to rescue a dog but she wanted the perfect dog. She had decided on a Chinese Crested. A powder puff, they are the ones that have all the hair. The she went on petfinder and she thought she found the perfect dog.

She packed ELVIS in the car and they drove 2 ½ hours to meet ELVIS’S new friend. She was not like ELVIS, she was shy, and she had lived a hard life and did not know what it was like to be loved. She did not like to be touched or held and cowered at everyone and everything. The kind girl felt for this dog so she took her home and decided to give her the best life possible... that was when PRISCILLA came to live them…

PRISCILLA preferred corners, and hiding under tables, but the girl was patient. Sometimes the girl would turn around and catch PRISCILLA watching her from around a corner. PRISCILLA was coming out of her shell a little bit at a time. She grew to trust the kind girl, and she loved ELVIS.

Then there was a boy… This boy was everything the girl had dreamed of. He too was kind, and he loved animals. He had 2 children that also loved animals. He asked the girl, and ELVIS and PRISCILLA to come to Ohio and be a family with him and his kids. The girl, agreed, and she, ELVIS and PRISCILLA drove 2200 miles across the country to a new home.

The boy loved the girl, and her dogs, but her dogs were loyal to her. While they loved the boy too, they thought the girl was their reason for being. The girl saw that the boy longed for this too. And she wanted to give him that.

The girl thought and thought and talked with the boy, and they talked about what kind of dog he might like. Then the girl decided… It would be his Christmas gift. She wanted to give the boy the happiness she felt when her dogs loved on her, the comfort she felt when her dogs cuddled up to her, and fulfillment she felt in caring for them… that was when ISABELLA came to live them.

So now, the boy goes to work and the girl stays home, and the kids, they play… The dogs, well they are a gang. ISABELLA is the newest member, and honestly the funniest, and grossest one so far. They have many nicknames for her, Poo-tongue, Biscuit-eater,(She has a thing for poo) Fart-blossom (she farts rainbows, you see) just to name a few. The other dogs have decided she is a wizard for her ability to produce treats (in other words reproduce the food she has already eaten). to them, it's a reason to have a carpet picnic. Every day is a new adventure, and one more story more disgusting than the day before…

But, the girl, she is happy. And the boy, he has his dog. And ELVIS, he is now the leader of the POODIDDLE GANG!

The Dog Inside

This post is dedicated to all the people who tell me my Chinese Crested is not all there upstairs. I am trying to be politically correct so I am not using the actual words they use to describe her... lol

Priscilla, AKA Poopaw, is my Powderpuff Chinese Crested. She got the nickname Poopaw because the first day I had her I took her out for a walk with my other dog Elvis, who has quite the interesting way of pooping, but that is a blog for another day, and she stepped right in to his pile!

So, Priscilla was a puppy mill rescue. She spent 5 years of her life in a puppy mill in Southern Missouri being used to do nothing but produce puppies. At about 5 years of age, the numbers in the litters of dogs will start to decline and the dog is considered not as profitable so they are sold at auction. Puppy mill dogs are not pets, they are kept in cages and not handled except to be tossed from one cage to another for breeding. That is their sole purpose in life. There is no love for a dog like this. No warm puppy breath on a child's face, no cuddling under the covers, and no belly rubs. It is very sad. They become withdrawn and afaid of people and places and many end up being put down.

Priscilla was found by a rescue in Southern Missouri, and placed on petfinder. I found her and even though I knew it would be a challenge, I wanted to give her a chance at a comfortable happy life. So I went to the rescue and went through all the steps and adopted her. 

When I first saw her, she was cowered in the corner of her crate shaking. She was so afraid. I got her home and she was scared of everything. It took me 18 months of patience, love and a stable environment to finally get her to trust me enough to jump into my arms.

It is going on 5 years in the Spring since Priscilla, AKA PooPaw came into my life. She still does not trust other people, and she still does not like to be petted, but she knows that she can trust me to care for her and love her. She know she is safe.

Now, when friends come over, Priscilla can be funny. She has a way of giving the stink eye. And one time, my close friend was watching my dogs and fell asleep on the couch only to wake up and find Priscilla on top of the couch staring over her as if she was planning her next meal. Now mind you, PooPaw is only 8 pounds! My friend swears my dog is not normal. I take all these little jabs with a grain of salt.  Because I know the dog inside!

The video here is the Dog inside Priscilla... There is a normal dog in there... and she is happy and playful.

A Dog of His Own

Some days seem never seem to have enough time and others just drag on and on... This is one of those long days and I am sure both of my older dogs are in complete aggreeance with me.  You see, we just got a new puppy.  This puppy was my husband's early Christmas present.  My dogs are just that, mine.  As long as I am in the room, no one else exists to them. I am their world and the sun rises when I wake and sets when I go to bed in their eyes.  Well, my husband really tries hard with my dogs, but it just isn't the same, and I wanted him to have the same experience I have with my dogs with one of his own.  Of course I thought we would go to the pound a rescue a full grown dog.

Now let me state for record, we did try and rescue an adult dog, but my husband wanted a larger dog like an English Bulldog, or a Mastiff.  After reading about the bulldogs, we thought a little harder about Mastiffs. We even went to look at one.  I packed Elvis, my little Chihuahua/IG up in the car and took him with me to make sure it would be a good fit.  No such luck.  Elvis almost became dinner. To top that off, I could barely handle this dog, it was HUGE!!! Considering that I would be the one home most of the time taking care of the animals, since hubby is off flying to make a living, we decided to look at a breed that was smaller. 

We decided the Boxer was the perfect fit for our family.  They are good with kids, and other animals. They are eager to please and very smart.  They are a large dog, but not so big that I could not handle it by myself.  So I set out to do the responsible thing, I look for an older dog that needed to be rehomed.  Once again, Elvis was having nothing to do with that.  Now mind you this was all supposed to be a semi surprise for my husband...

Well, my husband has a way of trumping my super awesome gifts that I think up for him. The summer before last I came up with the idea of buying these golf clubs for him that he really wanted, but he ended up telling me he was wanting to buy them before I could do it.  This summer for his birthday, friends of ours told me about a Pittsburgh Steelers golf bag he was looking at and I was gonna get it for him, then he mentioned that to me.  I did a pretty good job of blowing that one off and he was pretty surprised when he got it for his birthday, but I suspect he knew.

So I don't know why I was surprised when one morning he starting researching breeders of boxer puppies.  Then he started emailing them.  We were still doing good, until one emailed us back.  I told him he did it to me again.  I explained to him that it had been my plan to give him a dog for Christmas.  We talked about it and decided that a puppy was probably the best way to go considering Elvis was getting quite cantankerous.  So it was decided, we would go look at this puppy a breeder had emailed us about.

We were only going to look, and maybe put a deposit down.  Needless to say, ninety minutes after walking in there, we were the proud new parents of a beautiful baby boxer girl.  Her name is Isabella.  It has been 14 years since I have had a puppy, and I had forgotten how much energy they have.  Nothing seems to slow her down, she has a continual need to experience everything with her mouth, and you can't turn your head for a second or she will be in the dirty clothes pile and no telling whose underwear will be in her mouth.

So like I said, today is one of those days when bed time seems to be a million miles away, with puppy barks and bites the whole way there...