Gayle's Blog

This is Electra the dam of my little girl Marilyn.  Her owner groomed her this way so that she could participate in a walk for the cure.  Isn't it neat to know that a Poodle displayed the colors for the breast cancer campaign and walked in the walk in Florida.  This is how she looked in September.  We were at a show and she was there so we took some pictures.  I think that she loks gorgeous and she drew a lot of attention.  Unfortunately this would not do well on her daughter becuse she is a black girl but we will think of something when the time is right.  I just thought that this might interest some of you.  You never know what you might see at a dog show.  There is one in Atlanta next weekend.  If you will be in the area and would like to come, email me and I'll give you details.

As I have been discussing,, I am in the process of redoing my house.  I am perlexed by what metal element to use.  I have never been enamored with stainless and now it is yesterday's news anyway.  Chromke just doesn't move me either.  That doesn't leave many choices.  I have always been drawn to copper.  I know that it was popular in the 60's but most of that was coppertone finish and hokie country style fixtures.  I am seriously considering getting a copper sink although I know it will be expesive.  Copper is harder to find in pulls and decent fixtures, lighting etc. but it can be found.  The refrigerator can be fronted with the wood of the cabinets but what do I do about the stove and dishwasher?  Black would be an option.  Has anyone herd of true copper stove fronts or dishwasher fronts?  I have seen the burnished bronze appliances.  They might work, but, they are extremely expensive.  Anyone have any ideas?  I definitely do not want anything that looks like a crafts project.  I am even considering using copper for the countertop on the island.  Those of you that keep up on such things, where is the trend in kitchens going?

I am a bold person by nature nd I love colors.  Almost all of them.  That can be a blessing and  curse.  Everytime I get out my big Sherwin Williams color key I get mesmerized and can rationalize using alomost every color.  I therefore stay confused and frquently change my mind 100 times.  Well, I've tried to be more grown up about it, but, I m still tempted by all those colors from the jewel tones to the bold tropicals to the soft pastels.  What's a girl to do?

For those of you that have a Sherwin Williams key check out #45.  It is a graduation of mocha taupe from deep rich, dark to pale and gentle.  I have fallen in love with this scheme and have bought 4 gallons of different colors.  I plan to incorporate them into my entire house with the exception of 2 bedrooms.  I have always been bored with the neutrals especially taupe, but, I finally got what a great neutral this can be and I can bounce whatever colors I want off of it when I get bored by changing accessorfies.  Every color that I put gainst it looks great.  Right now I have lots of accessories in bold turquoise and deep tropical peach and pinks and breezy green.  Looks fantastic.  I just had to share.  I am finally a grown up now!

As most of you know I am in love with Poodles and not just because they are pretty.  I wanted to share with you a story as told by a fellow Poodle owner bout her special girl Vic.  I read this story this afternoon and just knew that I wante to share it with you.  She has just emailed me back and encoraged me to share it with you.  Please check out her website too as I think that you will find it interesting.  I am includiong the link in the post.  Poodles are amazing creatures and this is just another example of why!  Here is the story as told exactly by her owner.

Standard poodle, Vic (Lady Victoria of Marsan) has once again proved what
a great girl she is! There are so many poodles who have proved themselves
in the showring and get to brag... Vic is getting a bit old, we don't live
anywhere close to any shows and so she has to prove herself in other ways.
I think she has earned her brags just as much as any multichampion.

On the 23rd in subzero temperatures city-raised Vic helped me to deliver
and save 3 dwarf nigerian goat kids.

I live very remotely, totally off the grid. Had purchased bred goat does
last fall and wasn't sure of the due dates. Early morning on the 23rd, Vic
awakened me by whimpering frantically and licking my face. Assuming that
she needed to relieve herself, I opened the door to let her out. She was
off like a shot to the barn (which is a good distance away from where we
live). She bounced, jumped, barked and pawed at the door to the barn until
I got there. It was close to 10 below zero inside the barn. One of my does
was in the process of giving birth. The next few hours were very cold and
a lot of hard work! I pulled my pickup close to the barn (no power or heat
in the barn) and left the motor running. As the doe delivered I would take
the kid (average about a pound) to towel dry, with Vic assisting with a
few licks whenever she could. In a tremendous effort to keep these little
ones alive, I rotated their locations, from inside my coat to lying next
to Vic, back to their mom, then take them to the pickup to warm up. Vic
helped clean up amniotic fluid and took good care of the kids while I was
cleaning up the mom after each delivery. One of the kids had been left
with an umbilical cord that was several inches long. Vic first nosed it,
then started to chew it... needless to say, I was a bit nervous and almost
stopped her... But, she stopped herself, leaving approx 1 inch of
umbilical in place.  All three kids survived and they are darling! What a
great poodle!

Good girl Vic!
Darla
Yaddapoodles.com

(photos of dwarf nigerian goats can be seen on the website of the person I
got mine from--camanna.com)

Ok so we left off with the dog blown straight and dry.  Now what?  How do you get them to look show ready?  Well, first there is the shaving to be done. A #40 is the most commonly used blade and it is a close shave.  The entire face needs to be shaved from the center of the ear to the end of the muzzle and then a nive V or U needs to be shaved down the neck onto part of the chest.  This takes an eye as the dog needs to look balanced.  Once that is done than each of the 4 paws needs to be shaved witht the same #40 blade.  It is quite a task to get gently in between the toes without nicking the pads.  Now the tail.  Assuming that the dog is over a year and being shown in a continentl clip, the entire rear and bse of tail needs to be shaved.  It is neccessary to go evenly around the rear poms without causing irritation.  The belly and privates need to be shaved also.

So now the shaving is done and we are ready for the final scissoring and spray up.  Again, an art.  The dog stands perfectly still on the grooming table nd the top knot is banded and spryed in place.  Then the mane is sprayed up lightly and scissoring takes palce.  One must always keep an eye on the total picture and make sure there is balance to the profile.  This is best done slowly and carefully.  Once the final look is achieved a show lead is banded to the mane and the final spray is completed.  If you are lucky there will be no wind or passers by to brush up gainst the coat.  Just to be sure, most professional handlers carry a comb and spray with them to ringside.  So now you have the basics.  We'll talk more about showing in the future.

So many of you have followed my blog about my Poodles and I thought that you might be curious to know just what goes into a "finished product" as far as a show Poodle is concerned.  So, I thought that I'd tell you.Here is a picture of a well known stud dog after a win.  It just so happens that this dog is the great grandsire of my white bitch Sagitta(Manderlay's Spellbound).  It takes an experienced groomer about 6-7 hours to get the dog looking like this starting from a bath.  First they must be bathed thoroughly; usually twice and then rinsed thoroughly.  Conditioner of some sort is used and then they are rinsed again.  After that they are towel dried, but, definitely not by rubbing.  There is a technique used that is more like wringing out  wash cloth.  The towel is placed over the long cot and then sqeezed to absorb moisture. Once this has happened it is time to take the dog for "line" drying. 

The dog is trained to lay on it's side and a special stand dryer and pin brush re used.  The hair is divided into sections starting at the top and brushed slowly with a specialized technique slowly and in small sections.  This straightens and drys the hair.  Generally, the shorter coat on the anklets, poms and tail are brushed out using a special slicker brush to fluff it out as well as straighten it. 

Once all of this has been done the dog looks like a big poof of hair.  Now it is time for the finish scissoring, the shaving, and the "spraying up".  I will detail each of those stepps in another blog entry.  I thought that this might give you some idea of just how much goes into showing a Poodle so when you watch them on the upcoming Westminster Dog Show you will have a better appreciation of the care and preparation neccessary to be there.

OK Let's go to the beach club now.  The Chelsea beach Club with it's 2 salt water pools and it's tunnel out the the ocean.  yes, it was a working class beach club.  Not as prestigous as say the Deal Club, but, it was fun.  I had my first real kiss in the cabana and I am ashamed to say that it was 1958. Oh my.  My father used to do jack knives off of the high dive and I was frequently seen climbing bck down after chickening out and forcing an entire line of people to climb bckwards down the ladder.  I did eventually master the high dive.  All of my little friends from the neighborhood would go too.  It was the thing to do.  My favorite part was sneaking ccross the street to the arcade and playing the penny arcade machines.  All thoses silly little trinkets made in Japan that we thought were just gold.  I kept my collection for a long time.  One Christmas I asked for  Coney Island Penny Machine made by Remco and I thought I had died nd gone to heven that Christmas morning.  Some of my fondest childhood memories were t that beach club and in Long Branch.  Of course those of you who are familar with it now would never even be able to fin the remnants of what I remember.

Well gang, unbelievable, but, thanks to you and my poodles, this is  officially my 100 th blog entry!!!  Hurry.  I joined in Novemeber and it has been quite eventful if short.  You have seen me through my de-cluttering, my MS relapse and scare; my remodeling and my poodle's first snow.  Now you re reading my 100th blog and it seemed like it would never happen, but, I'm hooked forever now.  I also have ccomplished #1 in my city, #1 in my county, and #11 in my state.  Not bad for less than 3 months.  Of course without all of your actiive dialogue I wouldn't be here.  zI like chasing gols but mostly I really like the people here.  Thanks Gang for all of your support!

I thought today that I'd talk more in general terms about wht life was like in NJ during the early years.   I wish that my scanner was working so that I could have pictures accompany this blog.  For those of you that are familar with the big ampitheater on the Garden State Parkway, it's original name was Holmdel Park.  After they built the center they named it the Garden State Arts Center and now it has a different name.  Well, before there was and arts center there was just plain old Holmdel Park and it was in the sticks.  The only other thing in Holmdel was Bell Labs of Telstar fame.  It was extremely rural dotted with corn farms and horse farms.  This is where we went to sleigh ride and boy was it grand.  It was a whole ay outing.  There was a great hill there named Telegraph Hill and it was so much fun to ride it all the way down on my Flexible Flyer.  Then along came Flying Saucers and at the time they were made of aluminum.  We'd wax them up an fly over the hills and bumps. It was the place to be in the winter.  I remember sometime in the 80's finding out that a lot for a home was then bout $14,000 and I thought how outrageous.  Now that same lot would be $250-300k.  Funny how time changes things.  What was once considered undesireable woods is now one of the more elite places to be in Monmouth County.   

OK I don't mean to be redundant here, but, I have tried repeatedly to add these photos to the original Sagiitta blog and Active Rain will not let me pull it up so rather than have everyone missout on seeing her playing in her first snow, I have dedicaated another entry to her with the snow pictures included.  She seems to think that romping in it is great fun but this is more work for the mommy!!!

Bath day tomorrow!!!