When I was 8, I moved to live with my father and step-mother in an 1832 farmhouse, once Cornelius Vanderbilt’s head butler’s house, in a small town along the Hudson River. The house, for which the description, “fixer upper” was an understatement, was barely heated. It was a cold April, and as I settled in with “Pete,” the parakeet I had brought with me, we both shivered. The key to my survival for those months of upheaval was “Pete”, who died a little while later, probably from the cold, and a brown standard poodle named “Droste,” who was more cuddly than Pete. My step-sister, happy to have a willing assistant, immediately formed the Poodle Club. She was President. We had felt vests, badges, mottos, posters, and signed all our important correspondence, “Yours in Poodles.” Eventually, Droste went to live with my step-grandfather, whose deep bond with that dog was something to behold, but that’s another story.
Fast forward: it was time to get a new dog for my kids, after the death of our Bombay Masala Hound, “Lady,” so we went looking for a poodle. Lady had wandered into our lives in Bombay, a street dog who was an amazing survivor, a great ratter when we needed one, which was all the time, and a bit possessive. Lady gets her own story: (http://www.connectionnewspapers.com/news/2017/feb/22/arlingtons-one-and-only-bombay-masala-hound/
Finding the right dog was hard! We must have seen dozens of poodles and their breeders before we found Cabin Creek Standard Poodles. Jackie was the family breeder I wanted. Her dogs, Shadow and Geronimo, were beautiful and sweet. Her pups were all brought up with kids, creeks, and love. They showed it. The kids wanted an apricot colored poodle – she had 5 – and I wanted a black poodle – she had 6; Jackie suggested one of the males, so we let the dog choose. That’s how “Kai”, aka “Sojourner Summer of Storms,” came bounding over to my son, Youssef, and leaped into our family.
Kai travelled with us everywhere, to India, to France, and to London, where he was on the front cover of a fashion magazine, and somewhere along the way, he got sick, probably from some environmental contamination. I’ve written that story elsewhere, too. (http://www.arlingtonconnection.com/news/2016/feb/24/arlington-saying-goodbye-kai/)
But this is about Juno, the second dog Jackie produced for our family, a black female she said I just had to come out and see. I told her it wasn’t a good time, I was still in mourning for Kai, and about to be in mourning for my husband. But I knew how important a dog can be for a boy, and so Youssef and I went out, held the pup, and left, swearing we wouldn’t get that tiny, sweet puppy, and we were still saying that when, five minutes away from our house, Youssef turned to me and said, “I think we should get the puppy,” and so Juno came home three weeks later, a week before my husband died. Was it that Juno understood she had to step right into the role of soulmate, comforter, clown, and obedient servant? Or was she just as sweet and chill as Jackie had predicted?
Jackie stopped breeding in 2017, and that’s a great loss to poodle lovers. She had learned at the knee of some of the best, including Joanie Clas of Haus Clas Standard Poodles, and her dogs were carefully selected to emphasize good looks and gentleness. End of the line of those wonderful dogs with their distinctive noses? No way! And that’s how I became a dog breeder. Juno would hopefully go on to replicate her sensitive, “meet them halfway” personality and her petite size, agility skills, and therapy temperament. And now she has!