Our new puppy - River!

You might remember that I did a post back in April regarding the passing of our little toy poodle, Gigi. I was totally devastated by her passing and have been grieving for months. We wrestled with the idea of getting another puppy but wanted to put some time behind us before doing so. We considered getting a mini Schnauzer puppy and I even found a puppy here in Colorado that I fell in love with - look at the heart on his side!

But, hubby was hesitant to get another small dog for several reasons. We have heard that Schnauzers can be big barkers. Strike one. We have heard that Schnauzers can be snippy with other dogs. Strike two. I don't want to get a little dog with "small dog syndrome". Strike three. So, as much as I adore this little puppy, we decided that he just wouldn't fit our current lifestyle.

Then we went to a llama show over Labor Day weekend and some friends of ours had brought their black standard poodle with them. He is a gem. It really made both of us miss our little Gigi. So, we thought perhaps a standard poodle might be the best choice for us. We really missed the poodle personality - they are so smart and so easy to train. After we got back home from the llama show I started doing an internet search for standard poodle puppies in Colorado and found a breeder who lives less than two hours away from us. She had two dogs listed in her ad - one of them was a black male standard poodle named River, which was exactly what we were looking for. I emailed her and asked if River was still available. He was. Long story short, after being told that River might be sold on Friday, I woke up Saturday morning to an email saying that the breeder refused to sell River to the person who looked at him Friday evening and if we were still interested we were welcome to come visit. We went and saw River and both of his parents, along with his parent's pedigrees and fell in love with him. River is calm, sweet, laid back, fun loving, obedient and a stunning dog with excellent conformation. I haven't been able to get good photos of him since we brought him home because he rarely sits still for more than two seconds when I'm trying to photograph him. So, for now I'm sharing his photos from the breeder.

Here is River's paternal grandsire, JC Pioneer's Kaiser. Kaiser was the #1 standard poodle for 2003/2004 - he was the first silver standard poodle to achieve this!

Saturday morning while we were getting ready to leave to go meet River we got a call from the shelter saying that it was time for our foster kittens to go to the vet for their neuter surgeries on Monday. So, it was good timing because now I don't have to keep track of a puppy and two small kittens!

Another Photo Contest!

UPDATE: Please keep voting through Sunday. Today we moved up from page 5 to page 3 of the entries! Thank you to those of you who have been voting for Gigi!!

Okay, another shameless plea, I mean plug - for your vote in the Animal Rescue Site's Cutest Dog Photo Contest on Facebook. This is our little Gigi as a puppy. She's a toy poodle and still cute as can be! Thank you for voting! You can vote once every 24 hours until the contest ends on Sunday August 23rd.

Gigi - Our Poodle Pup

This was going to be a wordless post but there were so many comments I decided to post a little more about this cute little puppy. This is our toy poodle puppy that was approximately 8 or 9 weeks old when this photo was taken on 4th of July 2000. Gigi is going to be 9 years old on May 4th this year and she is still a cute little dog. We only had poodles when I was growing up. There were so many allergies in our family that a poodle was the only dog the allergist would okay for the family. Poodles are essentially non-shedding but do require frequent grooming to prevent their long curly fur from matting up. They are extremely intelligent and personable little dogs and they come in several sizes - Tea Cup, Toy, Miniature and Standard. They all share pretty much the same traits and are a joy to have as companions. The smaller sizes make great apartment dogs - you can even train them to use a litter box (there is special dog litter) or a wee wee pad when you can't make it outside to let them do their business. They love to be around people and love to go for rides in the car. Gigi used to go to work with me every day and she would sit in the seat until we went to the drive-up window at the bank or a fast food restaurant and then she would run to the window and stare at the person inside, begging for a dog cookie (which she usually would get). Poodles are easy to train and love to learn tricks and will perform them for whomever will watch - especially when cookies are at stake! I searched for months to find a black female toy poodle and the minute I saw Gigi I knew she was "The One" for us. Hubby didn't want a poodle again because I had a toy poodle when we got married and if DH made the dog mad, the dog would pee in his shoes! DH did NOT have a good opinion of poodles and finally told me "fine, you can get her as long as I don't have to have anything to do with her". We picked Gigi up during the day and I was holding her when DH walked in after work and he said "OMG, she is soooo cute!" and I said "Yes, she is, but you don't have to hold her because I know you want nothing to do with her!" Yes, it was love at first sight for DH, too. And Gigi still continues to amuse us and entertain us with her little antics and adorable personality.