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By Cindy Thomas
For many years, I've wanted a poodle. But time after time, I would putting off getting one. Usually it was the price the owner wanted. I could never justify paying a ton of money for an animal. I couldn't decide if I wanted a poodle puppy, a grown poodle, or even what size or color I wanted. It never occurred to me that I would be picking a pet based on the name, until Teddy Bear came along.
For many years, I've wanted a poodle. But time after time, I would putting off getting one. Usually it was the price the owner wanted. I could never justify paying a ton of money for an animal. I couldn't decide if I wanted a poodle puppy, a grown poodle, or even what size or color I wanted. It never occurred to me that I would be picking a pet based on the name, until Teddy Bear came along.
Part of the irony of this, and one of the reasons we know this was meant to be, is that my screen name is TeddyBearTeam. It's been that since October, 2000. One day in May of this year, I just decided to look at websites of humane shelters, seeing if any had a poodle. Strangely I did not find even one poodle. Somewhere that same day, I found a couple of email addresses for people that rescue animals. On a whim, not thinking I'd get anywhere, I wrote asking if they had or ever got any small male poodles, that we'd like to have one but did not want to pay a ton of money for one.
I can't remember if it was the same day or the next day, but I received an email that had me and my husband with our mouths hanging open in near shock. One of the two people that I had emailed responded, and were really surprised by our screen name. She had a male poodle, about seven years old, whose owner had died recently, and he wasn't eating. He was grieving himself to death over the loss of his owner. And his name? Teddy Bear.
After opening and reading the email, and managing to pick our dropped jaws up off the floor, we took less than two minutes to decide we wanted this poodle. So we called, left a couple of hours later, and headed down the road to pick up our new poodle. Naturally, we made a stop at the local WalMart for lots of poodle snacks and treats.
When we arrived, we immediately fell in love with Teddy Bear. He was thin, but was so adorable and cute. The kids took right to him, and he right to them.
It's been about six months since Teddy Bear joined our family. He's since put on weight, and is looking good. He's become very attached to his Papa, and follows him everywhere like a little child. He loves to go for rides, and has figured out that when my husband puts on his hat, we are going somewhere. Teddy Bear strides to the front door, and makes a mad dash to get out the door, making sure we don't leave him behind. He doesn't always make it out though, if we are going to be gone for a while. But he's always looking out the window from the sofa when we return. Rotten does not begin to describe this poodle!
There's been only one problem that Teddy Bear has encountered since coming home. We have an indoor cat, formerly known as Bunny Cat and now known as Kitty, that's been here since she was about four weeks old. She's going on three years old now. She looked at Teddy Bear as someone taking over "her" turf, and was always letting him know it by swatting at him anytime he came remotely near her.
Just this week, we think she has taken to Teddy Bear. We leave newspaper down for him to use when we are gone, but are trying to teach him to go outside. We are having very good results so far, but this week he headed for the paper again. Kitty saw him standing on the paper, ran over to him in a tailspin, and slapped at him three times heading him towards the front door! I hopped up and let him out, and then congratulated "mom" on catching him before the went.
Teddy Bear is one of the family, and even though he's only been here since May, it seems like forever. He's about as rotten as they come, and I think he knows it. The former Bunny Cat has a brother, and if she hears me say that, she's liable to slap me!
Tonight, at almost 10 p.m., our beloved Teddy Bear died. We will all miss him terribly. He brought such joy and love into our hearts, and in our hearts he will live on.
Teddy Bear was our fluff ball, a sweet poodle that loved to go for rides, who took his place in our hearts and home. He was and will always be our Teddy Bear.
Copyright 2001 by Cindy Thomas
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