And so the story began. I can’t say I’m a dog person or a cat person, I’m an animal person. I grew up with cats due to working parents and a small garden, we didn’t have a car and our estate (council not country) wasn’t really that grassy for snuffling dogs to enjoy. There was green belt land near by but by the time you’d walked there it’d be time to walk back. I love my cats and dogs. Was there nothing greater than visiting the girlfriend/boyfriend’s family for the first time to find they had a furry lodger and how it lifted the awkwardness as you stroked and played with them (the pet not the parents).
So after ‘growing up’ the plan was to be surrounded by various mammals that I could name and hug but work and lodgings prevented that for many years. Third floor and being out all day was not conducive for a dog but my cats have a flap and a fire escape and big gardens to play in with no roads to cross.
I kinda adopted the local’s pub dog and would take him on park tours and towpath adventures (I’d moved up market from when I was a kid) so the need for a dog was appeased.
My partner was hankering for a dog, she lives miles away and wanted a little buddy. A poodle of all things! Not a cavapoo or a cockerpoo but an actual poodle. A phantom poodle what ever that is. I think I made excuses about the cats and the puppy pads and the fire escape steps and many other things.
And then she turned up with Lucian the phantom poodle and all that stuff was immediately forgotten!
Don’t think I’d ever touched a poodle. I’d stroked, petted and rolled about the floor with many dogs asking them if they were a goodest ‘ikle girl or if they were the best boy in the world (oh, yes you are) and they are all the best ‘ikle girls and the best boys in the world. A poodle though, wire scrubbing brushes, right?, wrong!
Poodles, hair or fur? A question I’ve never really entertained before. I’ve always just guessed they’d be a bit of a Brillo pad (other wore scrubbing brushes are available). Girlfriend had finally managed to let him out of her clutches and set him down in front of me on the shaggy rug (a rug so deep it regularly steals money, food and remote controls, so I was a little worried). He sat chewing an over sized dog toy dice (or is it di, whatever) looking up occasionally. He finally caught my gaze and walked forward (well, waded through the rug) and dropped the toy at my knees. Was this a Mexican stand off, was I meant to take the toy, was I meant to touch that weird hair/fur (you need to remember I’ve only had cats and taking their toys can end rather bloody). I gambled on the toy and it paid off. He leaped forward to regain his treasured squidgy thing straight on to my lap… and there he settled drifting into a half snooze within seconds.
Next step though is introducing him to the real bosses of the house, the ginger illuminati.
…And the fur or hair of a three month old poodle is the softest thing in the universe!
