Meet Buddy

The newest addition to our family is Buddy, a purebred 18-month-old male miniature poodle. He’s apricot colored and about the same size, maybe even slightly smaller than our housecat, Tiger. I first saw Buddy on the day before Thanksgiving at the Cambridge Pet Salon. I stopped to learn the cost of having our Labrador mix, Lady, bathed. She had been smelling quite doggy and needed her nails trimmed.

I saw this sweet-looking poodle cuddled in one of the groomer’s cages. Groomer Becky explained that he was for sale and had come from a puppy mill some weeks earlier. She said Buddy hadn’t been socialized and had been very thin. I held him and he was a good weight for his size/breed, was quite snuggly and came fully vaccinated. I’ve never owned a true lap dog, although Lady likes to jump up on our laps sometimes, but at 80 pounds she is so NOT a lap dog. Buddy weighs about 12 pounds, less than Tiger who last weighed in at 14! I don’t know where it began, but I’ve always loved an apricot colored poodle – regardless of size. Now, miniature is not the smallest, which is toy (think: Chihuahua). Anyway, I asked Ian, who looked at me like I had truly lost it, but said, “Yes.” We picked up a freshly groomed Buddy that day after Thanksgiving. We also dropped Lady off for her doggy spa treatment. Both smell great now.

In coming weeks we’ll have Buddy fixed. Lady’s spay, so there’s no true rush. I want him completely settled in to a routine with us, before we add in surgical procedures.

Being a poodle, Buddy requires grooming once every six weeks and he eats small dog food versus the larger chunk stuff Lady chows down. The winter weather may also require getting him a jacket for poop/pee outings. I draw the line at boots and hats though. Since we clip our horses, we may well learn how to clip Buddy’s coat properly and be able to handle this ourselves eventually. It cannot be rocket science!

Buddy has also been introduced to the outdoors Macdonald menagerie – the chickens, barn cats, geese and the horses. He thinks the latter are the biggest dogs he’s ever seen! The horses find him quite curious and line up at the fence when he bounces down to the barn accompanying Lady and me to do chores.

The best blessing of all so far is that Buddy is not a yappy dog. It’s just not part of his nature, and this may have something to do with his time at the puppy mill. Whatever the cause, we appreciate him not being a small dog vocalist.

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