My poodle...
Someone in my family always has a poodle. My grandmother's was originally her father's and Peggy was best for tormenting. You could really get her going. My mom had Franchelle, my aunt has Bridgette, and my cousin has Joie and Lacy. But these are all little poodles. Steve was afraid of squashing them with his size 13's. So after meeting my uncle's standard, Onyx, I told him we needed a standard poodle. We got Zoe. She was the sweetest and one of the smallest in her litter. She's just under the normal weight for a female poodle. Which is a great size for licking small children directly in the face.
Zoe just turned 6 in February. She was actually born the exact same day Steve had his appendix removed. When she first came home, she was so little we had to carry her up and down the steps. Now she takes 2 or 3 at a time. Her first night, I tried to make her sleep in a crate. She cried, Steve caved and she took up residence on the bed. Which she conveniently decided was too cramped for her sleeping style when she got bigger. She now has beds set up in various rooms of the house yet we still often find her in Beca's room sprawled across the floor. She was pretty much potty-trained when we got her and when she gets nervous, she just sits so that was really easy to teach her.
She loves her laser and to chase light. She does not like fireworks or anything that sounds like it. Her favortie activity of the day is to pounce on Steve while he is in bed and lick her in the face. I love that if we are home for more than 2 days in a row, she gets irritable with us and would like to have her house back to herself during the day.
Her dog food has changed recently and they now have these soft bits in it. She eats all the soft bits first and then implores us with a stare at the bowl and then a stare at us to refill the necessary soft stuff. We do not. We are able to free feed her (as most poodles can) which means she eats when she wants to. Beca's introduction to toddlerdom brought extra weight for Zoe. She was 40 pounds for the first 4 years of her life. Now she's usually around 42 pounds.
She has the sweetest eyes and is very expressive. She talks back when she is tired and doesn't want you to talk to her. She must have bad dreams because she wimpers and then goes to find her platypus toy. She does not destroy most of her toys, except for cheap tennis balls. She still has the little orange bear that was in her puppy kennel with her biological mother, Moxie. Real tennis balls that a human would play tennis with work much better because she cannot break them apart. Playground balls that have been left outside for a while also get eaten. Her favorite outside toy is actually a small soccer ball from Target. She doesn't really know what to do with most Frisbees except tug. She steals fabric headbands and has been given the gift of all my old scrunchies since I do not foresee a need for them ever again (why did we think those looked good?).
Zoe is a good watch dog - she alerts us if someone walks anywhere within her viewing range. Including barking at people walking on the greenway. She enjoys chasing the squirrels and birds too. Rabbits are particularly annoying and I am not looking forward to them running around again. This goes back to the standard poodle breeding. They were originally hunting dogs and the stupid haircuts were so they could be spotted in the swamps where they were busy tracking down game. They have very soft mouths so while some people think Zoe is trying to bite, she is just trying to figure out how to grab you to get you to do what she wants. Her mouth is like a hand. She really thinks she is a person and we are ok with this.
Her love of the laser and flashlights allows us to watch one of the few bonding experiences she and Beca have - Beca runs with the light and Zoe chases. Zoe also likes to watch over Beca when she sleeps. We often have to go in to check on Beca before we go to bed and if we leave the door open, Zoe will spend the whole night on Beca's floor. The funniest part is when we are woken in the middle of the night by Beca screaming that she has peed her bed and when we come to change out the sheets, Zoe stays put on the floor and waits for the light to go off. She will hide her eyes under her paws if the lights are too much.
Zoe does not always love me because I clean her eyes, ears, and teeth and brush her hair. She runs away from Steve whenever he puts on a swimsuit because that often means she is getting a bath. Zoe does not like car rides. She doesn't get sick but after her first few years of riding in the car every day to my parents house, she just does not like to be in the car. At least she lays down for the ride.
Zoe's tricks include "settle", which is lying down while rolling her hips to the side. She cannot pop up from this position easily. She can shake, high five, double high five with and without coming up with her back legs, and she can dance. "Go find your Daddy" sends her into a frensy trying to figure out where Steve is and how she is going to lick his face. It's great fun to wind her up sometimes!
She is truly a fabulous poodle!
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