The Poodles have it --- problems that is. I know that mother has a special place in her heart for poodles, and sometimes I wish I had the flowing curly hair that her one-true-love-poodle Jessica had; but not this week.  This week has been a bad week for poodles.

Dusty, the tiny silver toy poodle (and by tiny I mean smaller than me) came in to have his teeth cleaned today.  I didn't realize that to clean some of the teeth that meant they had to be taken out of his head and placed in a bowl, but that's what happened to Dusty today.  I heard mother bark something like, "Wow, there are so many holes around his teeth" and I couldn't help but think that teeth are for making holes, not having holes.  "See these dark spots around the roots of the teeth, they are abscesses" mother said while looking at the black-and-white tooth pictures from Dusty's mouth, "that means these teeth can't be saved and have to be extracted".  "They really do look like holes in his jaw" Vocal Vonnie admitted.  "I thought teeth were for making holes, not having holes" Sweet Sally said jokingly.  Funny how Sally and I think so much alike.

After getting his teeth taken out for cleaning, Dusty seemed to wake up surprisingly calm.  Mother was not surprised though, "Of course he's tough, he's a poodle" was all she would say.

The other poodle having a bad week was Lavender.  Lavender was not fully poodle, the way I'm not fully Brussels Griffon, but she was enough poodle for mother to fawn, and pet, and love all over her. 
Lavender had been on hunger strike since her mother had gone away last week, but even now that her mother had returned to the den she still refused the kibbles.  I honestly can't imagine turning down food, of any kind, at any time; even toe nails look tasty to me.  When Lavender first came in last week, mother took some red syrup. Yesterday she got black and white pictures, got some yellow marking fluid and then took more and more red syrup. Lavender even had to stay to get the fluid run into a tube stuck in her arm.  "Well, that all makes sense now!" mother finally exclaimed after looking at the last of three pages of test results, "Lavender has Addison's disease!".  Mother clearly thought that everyone knew what this meant, but I don't think anyone did since it got really quiet.   "Addison's disease is a pretty rare hormone disorder where the body can't produce it's own cortisone, but it totally fits: a young otherwise healthy dog, stomach upset after a stressful event, lab work all out of whack.  Thank goodness we have an answer."  Actually, thank goodness for Lavender that Addie's sons disease can be treated with one poke once a month and a treat once a day.  I was happy for her, and I was wagging my tail that the dog that mother loved to pet and snuggle with would be going home soon; so I could have a cure for my poodle-envy too!