10/20/2006

Hooray for sunshine! Today was so much better than the rest of this week has been. Karen Martin came over this afternoon and brought her friend, Heather. We stripped and cleaned half the kennel. It smells sooo much better. Tomorrow, Beth is coming up and we’ll clean the second half and the puppy room. That's Karen, buried by her dogs, and Heather on the left.

For those who didn’t know, Hamlet (baby SP pulled from Clarksville) was set to return to Dreamweaver Farms this weekend. It was just not a good match with his new home. However, it looks like Hamlet won’t be coming back to me after all. We have had a late breaking development in PA that may be very good for little Hamlet.

About an hour ago, Candace called me. She had stopped off at her favorite dog deli to order a birthday cake for her two toy poodle girls. She was chatting with the owner and mentioned she had to get home to groom her SP foster puppy. The owner of the shop paused in her tracks and said "what foster SP puppy." Candace explained Hamlet and how he had come to stay with her. Next thing Candace knows, the owner (Maddie) is on the phone with her husband, Lee, explaining about Hamlet. It turns out that Maddie and Lee are the proud owners of a female golden doodle who is 7 months old and they had recently realized they needed a playmate for their girl. Lee grew up with standard poodles. Maddie and Lee asked Candace to please let them come over to meet Hamlet before he began his journey. Maddie closed the shop and followed Candace home and Lee drove in from across town.

Candace says it was pretty incredible about Hamlet's reaction - to Lee. Hamlet was immediately all over Lee, with tons of affection and attention getting actions. This from the puppy who at 4 months, could barely look a human in the eye.

The Lee's have gone home to fill out a CPR application to adopt. We are waiting on that now. If references check out okay tomorrow, and the home check passes, then Hamlet and his possible sister will met. If that goes well, he may very well be home. Hooray for Hamlet!

Now – when you live out in the sticks, many things that you take for granted in the city become a challenge. Receiving packages is one of those things. UPS and Fed Ex have a real problem with having to trek over a locked gate and down a ¼ mile long driveway to find me so they don’t. They leave cute little notes on the gate asking me to come pick my stuff up or leave the gate open (which you never, ever, ever, ever leave the gate open when you run a poodle farm). I had vaccines coming in from Schering Plough and those are refrigerated/perishable. I called Fed Ex and left messages and instructions for where to put the packages. At first, the dispatch told me it wasn’t possible and I would have to come all the way into Spartanburg and pickup. Those items were about to be corrupted if I didn’t get them into refrigeration so I was pretty panicky. Fortunately, the driver I had today went the extra mile. When he got the message about where to go deliver, he came back between other stops and made sure we got our stuff. But, you are all saying to yourself, but when is she going to quit rambling on and finish the story of Johnny! Well, okay. Here tis.

When Carol and I were traipsing around back yards in the middle of the night, we had talked a bit about what to do when we saw Johnny. I coached Carol in the protocols of catching a running dog – don’t run. Sit. She agreed and we continued searching. When we spotted Johnny, I thought Carol was going to jump out of her skin! She was so excited and every instinct she had said that she should RUUUNN towards her baby and scoop him up and hold him close.

But that mean old rescuer wouldn’t let her. “Carol,” I whispered. “Sit down.” Meanwhile, I’ve already plopped myself right down in the middle of that street, sitting Indian style with my legs crossed like I wanted to be there forever. I reached for the bag of treats and started telling Phoebe and Sam how wonderful they were and how they deserved these treats. I was talking in that loud, sing song voice we reserve for our dogs when we are very, very pleased with them. Phoebe and Sam weren’t really sure what they had done, but they were sure glad to be invited to this party!

Carol was about halfway down, poised to jump at the split second I gave the word. “Carol, - sit down,” I hissed, trying to sound a little forceful while simultaneously praising and singing to two happy SP’s. Carol settled down a little further but still wasn’t where I wanted her – sprawled and happy. Okay, it was in the middle of a poodle party in the middle of a street in the middle of the night in the middle of a little town in South Carolina called Easley and her brand new dog was in danger of darting out into a 4 lane highway at any minute and she’d been stressing about him for upwards of 7 hours now. No wonder she was a little on edge. However, I needed her RELAXED. She wasn’t.

So, in my best dog obedience tone I said, “Carol…SIT.”

Carol sat. So did Phoebe and Sam for that matter. And Johnny, seeing that all was well and everyone was happy, came running.

Carol didn’t know whether to laugh or cry when I told her I had Johnny by the bandanna and to please hand me the slip lead. I forgot to mention that yesterday. In her quest for supplies, Carol had enough forethought to also purchase two chain slip collars. Thank goodness because my hold on that bandanna was tenuous at best. It was loose and wanted to slip. I kept talking happy talk to the poodles and holding on to Johnny and feeding him treats while Carol got the slip lead situated and I could put it over his head. Whew! We had him. I really am not sure who was happier, Carol or Johnny. Phoebe and Sam seemed disappointed when they realized the party was over.

We three poo’s and Carol and I made our way back to the hotel without incident. It was a happy greeting with Frankie and Johnny and Phoebe and Sam thrown into the mix as well as Gregg. Carol told Gregg everything. Then, looking at me, she added "and I think I'm the one that needs obedience classes!"

The Bala’s insisted on getting me a hotel room for the night to thank me for coming out and so I wouldn’t have to make the drive back that night. I accepted their hospitality.

The next morning, we met for breakfast. Both of them were just beaming after their first night with their boys. Gregg told me an interesting story he had not relayed before. Apparently, sometime around the first of September, Gregg woke up on a Saturday morning very upset with Carol. The Bala’s had lost their dog some time before and had decided not to get another one. In Gregg’s dream, Carol brought home two dogs! Gregg was upset because he did not want new dogs. However, it generated a spark of interest in him and he started researching standard poodle breeders in the area and then turned to rescue. There, he found “the boys,” as he affectionately calls them.

We think the date of Gregg’s dream was September 7. That was the same day that Frankie and Johnny arrived at Dreamweaver Farms.

Tomorrow – dodging bullets. When two adopters want the same dog and both of them are in your building!

Good night from Dreamweaver Farms...
Donna