Dog Daze Of Fall

By Uncle Hans

One recent morning we crossed off the last day on the calendar, so that meant the big day was here.  We had been looking for a dog for a while on the internet and found one not too far away.  He was born August 18,  but the breeder would not release him for 8 weeks. 

But that day was today!  And a beautiful sunrise promised a great day......

.....a three and one half hour drive brought us to the breeder's house and she met us at the door with our little"bundle of joy".  There were a few tears and lots of cuddles....

.....his name is Charles le Chein (Charles the dog in French) after Charles Steinbeck's famous dog from his book "Travels With Charley".   He is an apricot Standard Poodle, likely to get to about 75lbs...

.......the breeder is interesting.  They are a couple that adopts children that "don't fit in well"  with social problems.  Years ago, one of the kids had a therapist that used a therapy dog, a Standard Poodle.  They were so impressed with the effectiveness of the dog that they decided to start breeding, figuring they could make some money AND do therapy for the kids at the same time. Now, every kid has a dog (or two).

The house is a disaster area, with 8 loveable but unruly kids and an average of 15-20 poodles of all ages, all running free.  The ominous looking grey poodle in these blurry  (everything in that house was a blur) pictures, is, you guessed it, the Mom.  She was a first-time Mom, but very mellow and being separated from her pups was causing her no apparent anxiety.  Incidentally, she had 10 puppies, and the gross from the litter was over $10,000.  The breeder  has another litter out of the red dog due any day.......

......the ride home was long, with some potty stops, but Charley took it all in stride.  He has his Mom's mellow personality (we hope).......

...... the first night was OK.  First nights are usually NOT OK.  He took possession of his new bed right away.  we set him up barricaded in the master bathroom, as it has a tile floor for "accidents".  That went pretty well during the day, but being barricaded and alone only a few feet from the only beings he even knew a little did not work out. Of course, he ended up in bed with us.

       A stroke of genius hit me about midnight.  I moved his bed to two chairs off the end of our bed and he spent the rest of the night either in his bed (80%) or snuggling with us (20%).  And no more crying, of course, once her was near his new "peeps"

    I am sure this is not his last blog........

By Uncle Hans