Living with Lulu - Toy Female Poodle

by Dan Garrett
(Oxford, Alabama)

My wife and I have been blessed with a little white toy female poodle
named Lulu who is now 6. Lulu does have an elongated palate which has
caused a slightly enlarged heart and from time to time she does have
some breathing problems. The majority of the time Lulu is a happy go
lucky little girl who likes to play with a yellow and orange squeaky toy
duck that we got from, believe it or not, a Cracker Barrell General Store. The duck was given to her right after she came to live with us
and she taught us how to retreive the duck. We did not teach her to retreive. She just started doing it on her own. Lulu is a very intelligent little girl and understands about 70% of everything said to
her. Her dry dog food is known in our household as "kibble" and when she wants her "kibble" she will approach us, sit down and bark in a very low monotone. When I ask her if she wants her kibble, she will bark loudly and dance around in circles. We will soon contact Auburn
University's School of Vet Medicine to schedule a visit and see if they
are willing to take a chance on corrective surgery for the elongated palate considering that Lu has an enlarged heart. Hopefully they will take the challenge and we will pray that she can recover and breathe
normally again. She is a wonderful part of our lives. It has astounded me that poodles are not as popular as they once were.
Why? They are the perfect pet. I have a very stressful job and when I
come home dejected and downtrodden, Lu will do everything she can to make me laugh and raise my spirits without being prodded to do so.
I would much rather spend time with Lu than with a lot of people that
I know.