Pets

Just like most American's we have pets - usually dog's of one sort or another. Roy is not very fond of felines so we have only had one during the past thirty years and we didn't think she would ever pass on. Even after a move from New Hampshire to Texas we couldn't get rid of her and she finally died at about sixteen years of age. Actually she wasn't a pet in the normal sense for she believed that she was the alpha something and we were merely her feeders.

Then we discovered poodles when our middle son's roommate decided he couldn't keep a young miniature poodle whose name was Poppy John Pete. Poppy was black with a few white markings and could jump straight up in the air about three feet. He loved to play, but mostly loved to roam off and visit the trash area at the Wendy's across Main Street from our house. One time he didn't make it either over or back and we really never saw him again. Luckily we had gotten a chocolate brown male puppy from a litter he had sired and thus Cocoa joined the family about a year before Poppy's demise. A couple of years after losing Poppy John we got My Sugar Lauren Bacall, a sweet apricot miniature. We'll always remember them fondly.

Then in 2003 and we got our newest toy poodle from Gene and Kathye in North Carolina. She came down by air and just simply moved into our hearts and home. Cleopatra is unique in her own right and as independent as any dog I have ever known, but still loves to cuddle and play, when she wants to. Then after some problems arose with David's family, we brought Scrappy, a fourteen year old miniature poodle back into our household. Scrappy was the last born of My Sugar's litter of puppies and he is a sweetheart and lives in Judy's lap.

I don't want to forget that we also had Brittany - she was Mark's dog when he lived at home and then became ours when he left without her. She was a cross between a Brittany Spaniel mother and a German Shepherd dad. She's was a sweet, totally deaf, nineteen year old when we finally had her put down.