Harbingers of Spring

I have a checklist (begun sometime in my childhood but continually added to) regarding Spring. I don't mark the season by the calendar or stellar bodies. Rather, it is by the things I most look forward to all through the winter months that mark Spring's arrival for me.
Here is where I am on the list so far:

• baby animals beside their mothers in the countryside. check. (on the way to and from work)blooming forsythia and quince. check. check. (in my yard right now)
• redbuds, daffodils and hyacinths in bloom. check, check, check. (everywhere)
• robins. check. (saw one out the kitchen window earlier.)
• Cadbury mini eggs on shelves at the market and signs announcing baseball sign ups on the windows outside. i can check these off, too.
• There is also the whole springing forward thing that we did last Saturday night. I am still adjusting! I like it staying light longer but don't much care for getting up an hour earlier!

Still, it's not Spring in my world until the time changes.So that's it. I have checked all the boxes on my mental list.That means it's time for kites and picnics and feeding the ducks and bicycling.For those I am more than ready...

and so, for a time...

So, that's the story of how there came to be three dogs in my lap. One wants to be with me all the time and the other wants to be with the dog who wants to be with me all the time. The third wants to be with the dog who wants to be with me and the dog who wants to be with her. Thus we will be until July when the baby of the bunch goes to live in Tulsa.
If anyone besides the big blonde lab in the yard will miss the puppy remains to be seen. Whether the baby dog will care about leaving us also remains to be seen. I am going to do everything in my power not to care when it is time for her to leave for her new home. About the baby daughter, I certainly will care but about the baby dog, I am not planning to....

Ellie Mae

I am not about to leave the dog saga without a tip of the hat to Ellie Mae, the timid blonde labrador retriever the new puppy loves so fiercely. Ellie is easy to love. She technically belongs to prince mostly charming, the king of our castle. She is his "man dog." She was supposed to be his hunting dog but between her timidity and our spoling of her, he would be more likely to swim for a duck in a pond than she.Her master hand picked her to fill the hole in our hearts left by a blonde lab name Chloe who we lost in tragic circumstances.
From the time she came to live in our backyard, no matter where we placed her house, Ellie has always preferred to be beneath the magnolia tree. A couple of summers ago she had nine puppies. All cute. In a range of colors. Five survived and went to live in new homes and yards. Ellie never quite got over the stress of all that. It mostly shows up in limp.
She was named after Jeb Clampett's daughter on the old sitcom "The Beverly Hillbillies." My middle sister, Karen the Good, had taken to calling my Baby Daughter "Ellie May"because of her love of "critters." Baby Daughter's Aunt Karen said animals would should up at her house when Baby Daughter came to visit that never appeared at another other time.
We were looking for an "E" name (Abbie, Bella, Chloe and once we had a dalmatian named Disney,) so... Ellie Mae seemed perfect but with a twist on the spelling.
She is quite well mannered and very tolerant.
Examples abound but here are a few of my favorites:

• Ellie Mae waits to be invited to come inside; even on the coldest or hottest of days or the darkest of nights.
• The grandbaby rode around on Ellie's back until Ellie's hip got so bad we had to make her stop.
• She still tolerates the grandbaby putting hats and/or clipping barrettes on her.
• The other evening, I watching as Ellie simply got up and turned around to keep the new puppy from continuing to chew on the end of her tail. She never growled, never snipped or nipped, though probably she should have.

The Grandbaby calls Ellie her best friend but Parker is doing her very best to be Ellie's companion of choice. This could get interesting.

Bella

Fast forward a few months. Baby daughter, no dummy, she, on the way home from having her braces removed, asks sweetly, "Daddy, could we swing by the dog kennel? They've just had the last batch of puppies from Abbie's mom and dad."

Goldie, the gold poodle mama of Abbie, Fitch and Zoe was about to enter her retirement years. How Baby Daughter learned of this I can only guess.And what do you know? There was a single puppy left unspoken for. The runt, an ugly little brown and black puppy offered to Baby Daughter at a discount rate. I have always said it was because the kennel could not get full price for her. There are others who say the discount was via the business generated by the public appearances of Abercrombie and Fitch.Whatever the reason, the pup came home with us...

Justification = mom shanghied Abbie.

Indoor dog #2 was named Bella. She was so ugly that the Italian word for beautiful just seemed to fit.I was determined this one was not going to take up with me. I ignore her all I could. Abbie was not a bit happy. She developed a special growl for Bella that she uses to this day.

Bella, much like the proverbial ugly duckling developed into a swan...and a handful. She seems to be testing the theory of whether dogs as well as cats, have nine lives. She has drowned, fallen, eaten poison, among other things. Emergency vet bills are just part of the deal with her.

Semester breaks and other holidays and the occasional weekend home reforged the bond with her original Alpha Dog, the Baby Daughter somewhat. Accompanying the baby daughter tothe home of her college roommate's family left Bella pining for Abbie. In spite of the aforementioned special growl, Abbie pined for Bella, too.

The good news: Bella did not take up with me. The bad news. Bella did take up with the Daddy/Prince and with Abbie. Mostly that happened while the baby daughter was away at college. But happen it did. Baby Daughter could not quite declare herself shanghied again but the result was the same.She's going to law school in the fall. She will be living with her college roommate again but this time they won't be together quite so much. The roomie is going to medical school and in anticipation of nights and evenings alone, studying alone in the quiet of an apartment (which sounds wonderful to me) Baby Daughter, once again, could be found seeking companionship of the canine kind.

Parker

There ensues another internet search for a maltipoo. Baby Daughter kicked around the idea of other breeds. A King Charles Spaniel was mentioned. There was discussion about a yorkie puppy. But in the end, it was a maltipoo she settled on; and found.Maybe not so coincidentally, the new puppy looks exactly like Abbie did when she was a pup. But she acts like Bella.

Baby Daughter and her beau drove some 12 hours round trip to Parker, Kansas and back on a weeknight to pick up the new puppy. The Beau, since he was willing to make the trip, got to name this one. He named her Parker.The puppy likes the Beau. She also likes the Grandbaby. ANd she really likes Prince Mostly Charming/Daddy/Granddaddy.

Parker also very much likes Abbie and Bella (though they decidely do not like her. Not yet anyway.) Most of all, she loves the big blonde lab who lives outside though she is roughly the size of one of the lab's paws. Suffice to say, this pup lives on the edge.Within a week of her arrival at what is going to be her temporary home (and I mean this) she was jumping down off my tester bed, something Bella still does not do. She climbs up the stairs on my side of the bed and can almost get herself back onto it.

One day last week I walked into the kitchen and found her hanging, just like a little monkey, from one of the top bars on the big dog's crate. I mentioned it to Prince Mostly Charming, he said he'd seen her do that several times.

The Rules

There were certain rules laid down even from that first day. Most of them lasted all of a week.
They included things like:

• No dogs on the furniture.
• The puppy sleeps in her crate.

I was not the first to break the house rules. The baby daughter was not the first to break the rules. I am not going to say who the first to break them was but eventually we all broke them all.
During the early potty training phase, I took Abbie to work with me in the little wicker carrier. When I took a break, so did she. It worked out beautifully.
Then I realized that the puppy followed me about the house. She whined at my chair to be picked up and was present beside my bed at bedtime. Oops. That was not the intent. It was, however, the result.I had become her Alpha Dog Person albeit accidentally.
Looking back, the result was predictable but I still contend it was not intentional.Baby Daughter would pick the puppy up and take her into her room. Puppy would wait until she thought the coast was clear and then find an escape. Right back beside my bed she would be. As many times as I would take her back to her owner, she would find a way back to me. The rest is history. I wasn't the one who wanted a dog but I surely got one.

We can call her Abbie

We went to Louisiana for Christmas that year to visit family there. Every day, Baby Daughter waited for a call about a puppy.
Finally the call came on the day after Christmas as we traveled back to Oklahoma. "When can we see them," asked the baby daughter.
"Not for several days," said the parents.
Yet we did not have the car unpacked when my baby sister arrived with the news that she and y baby daughter were meeting my co-worker relative of the kennel owners for "just a peek" at the pups. I am not sure how all of that came to be but by the time the trio left the kennel, each of them had selected a puppy.
They picked out names for the dogs on the trip back. Our pup was a girl. My sister chose a boy puppy. They were named for the kids' favorite clothing store: Abercrombie & Fitch. "We can call her Abbie," Baby Daughter said, when I observed what a mouthful Abercrombie was.They were caramel in color; the combination of their gold poodle mother and a white maltese father. All of the puppies save one had the same coloring, or so I am told. I never went to the kennel. Not then, anyway.
The one different puppy went to my coworker. That puppy was black.When it was explained that these "Phantom" pups are "thrown" only so often, my coworker just had to have it. She has it still. A gorgeous girl name Zoe.They would be ready to leave their mother by mid-February.
The wait seemed forever to the Baby daughter.Finally, we were called to pick them up on Valentine's Day. Baby Daughter walked in with the tiny fur ball pictured above. The red ribbon they'd tied around her neck was the only thing that kept us from losing her when we put her down on the winter grass. She was an exact match to its color and also to the carpeting in the den.
I recall there being birth announcements mailed out announcing the arrival of Abercrombie and Fitch. They were quite the pair about town that first Spring. To basketball and baseball and tee ball and tennis matches they went. I am told that demand for Malitpoo puppie swamped the breeder.

Uncle, I Said

Finally, I am worn down enough, and quite possibly feeling enough of the Christmas spirit to agree to let her try to locate and price a puppy.
I admit I was a bit relieved to learn that both the location and the price of what she found were out of range.
But then, the unthinkable (at least to my mind) happened! Chatting with friends
at school about the only thing she wanted for Christmas, Baby Daughter learns of
a kennel very near us that sells Maltipoos. And not just that, but the
kennel was owned by relatives of one of my coworkers who can get her an
immediate hook up. The hook up reveals there is a litter of maltipoo puppies
due at Christmas and they are affordable. Some are not spoken
for as of yet. Egads.
It is just meant to be, she tells me.
I conceded. I know when I have been bested and bested I was.
It's white flag time.

Uncle, I said.


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All She Wanted for Christmas

In the days and weeks that followed the test, photos began to appear as backgrounds on my computer, printed out on my desk, left in my car. Friends and family dropped not so subtle hints.
As Christmastime approached the intensity increased. It was made quite clear to me that all Baby Daughter wanted for Christmas was a puppy.

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Below:

the maltipoo picture that showed up in print and as screen savers all over my home, car and office...

Here is How it Happened

Thanksgiving Day 2002. We are watching the Macy's
parade when a dogfood commerical comes on. Commerical says stayed
tuned for the annual dog show immediately following the parade. Baby Daughter wants to
stay tuned. We stay tuned.http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iSO0-Rrl5QQ
Thus began a tradition we still keep, of watching the Thanksgiving Day parade and the dog show in our pajamas snacking on sweet breads and sipping (apple) cider and/or coffee.
On Thanksgiving Day 2002 there were no dogs in our home, in our laps, in our lives. All that would soon change. During the dog show, yet another commercial invited us to
take a pet test, a serious of questions on line designed to identify
the breed of dog best suited to a would-be pet owner.
Let's go take the test, says the Babhy Daughter.
We are not in the market, says the Mother.
"Just for fun, Mom," come the reply.
"Okay, but just for fun..."
The test results were fun and somewhat predictable. Poodles were high on our lists. The only inside dogs we had much experience with were poodles. Baby Daughter wanted a lap dog.
She was ( and is) a seriously social being who at the particular time was not enjoying the new experience being the only child in the house.
The test reference poodle mixes, something I had not heard of before.
Baby Daughter was all over the idea. She googled all manner of poodle mixes. I recall Thanksgiving dinner being served been late that year.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iSO0-Rrl5QQ

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Puppy Love

What we did not need was another dog at our house. Sometimes I can't believe we have any at all.
You see, I have never really been a dog lover;
especially when it comes to inside dogs.
We tried an inside dog, a little black poodle we named Cadeaux, when my husband and I were still newlyweds. Our lifestyle did not comport with dog ownership
Now, 35 years later, our lives still are not particularly dog friendly, yet, we now have four.
The newest one, technically, does not belong to us. She belongs to our youngest daughter. The problem is, so did two of the other dogs who are permanent residents at our house.
I am still trying to sort through how this all got started.

Is there really a dog-lover gene?
If so, my child inherited it from her father's family. My in-laws always always had a poodle on the inside and another, usually a boxer, on the outside.
My sister-in-law has owned about every kind of canine known to man at one time or another.
It never occurred to me that I would have more dogs in my house than she; yet at this moment, I think i do!
The first two of the inside dogs live with us through no fault of my own. Not at all. I mean,
not really. Not so much.
I am sure you will agree when you here how it happened.

How I got a lap full of dogs

This post was born of three dogs sitting on my lap at the same time this morning. I looked down and wondered aloud "how did this happen."
Truth is, I know exactly how there came to be three dogs in my home and on my lap.
All three are poodle malteses or Maltese poodles. Maltipoos, they are called. There is another blonde in the yard who thinks she is a Maltipoo but actually is a Labrador retriever.


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