Sweet Beyond Words

BD (before Duke), I wanted a standard poodle. I love those dogs. They're smart and beautiful. I'm not the kind of girl who dresses her dog up. I think they're gorgeous all on their own without pompoms and hairdos. My son who was quite young at the time told me if I got a poodle that he wouldn't love it. He was serious. So we got Duke the Giant Dobie. We had pick of the litter and Duke was the most obnoxious of all. He pushed the other pups out of the way (muscled them out) and climbed into my son's lap and promptly fell asleep. He has been the ruler of the roost since. When I showed the men in my house the dog I wanted to rescue they both nixed it. I promptly showed them what I think of that and brought her home today. My son is smitten.

This is Ellie (BK wants to call her Shelby but that is his Mustang fixation showing.) She is a very affectionate dog. She has endeared herself to Rachel (I think it's the long tail) by climbing into her lap. She has already figured out that Rachel leaves crumbs. I was relieved this meeting between Rachel and Ellie went so well. If it hadn't, we would have had to get rid of one of them.

Duke is not so happy, but Ellie is trying awfully hard to please him. He is behaving like a pain in the arse. Grumpy. And aloof. He hasn't been mean, just grumpy. Ellie is a pup and Duke's an older fella. He's probably miffed that she got to the butter that was out on the counter before he could. Ahhhh. It's good to have two dogs again.

She has a sweet face with familiar markings like a brown muzzle, eyebrows and (partly speckled) bow tie. She shows some pretty good indoor manners (well, some.) Someone has trained her to fetch. She races to the door to say both goodbye and hello. How could someone just dump her? Can it be as simple as finding her useless because she is gun shy?

She stood in the car all the way home and was at times half in my lap as though she wanted to drive. Right now, she couldn't get much closer. I'm curled up on the sofa and she is draped across my feet (and I think they're going numb.) Sort of clingy.

Oh. Lucky me. It's "that time" of the year for her. Sheesh. I can't believe she isn't spayed. So tomorrow, we're off to the vet (I need a first or last appt--don't want my pooch getting jumped) to see just how she really is.

I haven't had the pleasure of hearing her bark yet. I'm told she sounds just like a hound. I have visions of the hounds in Cool Hand Luke. I hope so. I think I'll find it charming-unless she lets loose at 3 am.