We’re still suffering the painful loss of our Standard Poodle, Cleo.
Although letting our other dog, Gabrielle (Elle), go a few years ago was hard, saying goodbye to Cleo has been even harder. I wanted to write more about her initially but couldn’t, and I’m still struggling to write this now…
In large part I think it’s been more difficult because Cleo was with us for 15 years, but also because she was such a nice, sweet dog. It’s so hard to think about our home with Cleo absent.
Kim and I tried to recall bad things we remembered Cleo doing and we could only think of three things. The first night she was with us we let her outside and she ran away and we spent much of the night looking for her, only to find her the next morning at the back door dripping wet with swamp water.
She also demonstrated her love for the taste of poultry when, while we ran an errand, she stole a whole cooked chicken off the stove top where it was sitting and ate it, and years later somehow managed to extract and eat a few quail chicks Justin had found and had in a cage in the house.
But otherwise with only a few exceptions Cleo was behaved, quiet, reserved and shy.
Unlike Elle who terrorized many of the dogs we fostered for years for a local animal rescue organization, Cleo patiently put up the interlopers while cautiously keeping Elle at bay as well.
While outside to avoid Elle’s occasional temper Cleo was smart enough to retreat to the safety of close to the invisible dog fence, an area into which Elle wouldn’t venture. We were also always amused by one of Cleo’s clever schemes: when Elle would chew bones in the bedroom by us at night Cleo would walk to the front door and bark to get Elle to run there and that would give Cleo time to get back into the bedroom to steal Elle’s bone (at least until Elle realized there were no intruders and came back).
We found Cleo through the local newspaper classified ads. She came from champion blood lines from a breeder in Iowa, but had been rejected by the breeder because shyness is considered a major fault for a Standard Poodle, and because she was considered too “narrow” (skinny).
When we got her she was less than a year old.
She was very much Kim’s dog and loved accompanying Kim while she did farm chores. She was very good with the farm critters and was infatuated with the babies.
Kim also taught Cleo to “smile”, wherein Cleo would bare her teeth for a treat. I used some video of Cleo smiling for the trailer for our home videos like on this one.
In her old age she got arthritis in her hips and that increasingly limited her mobility. A little more than a week ago she found it almost impossible to stand on her own (and remain standing) and we knew it was time.
We had been trying to brace ourselves since this spring when Cleo’s health took a nose-dive, but in spite of her many ailments she recovered somewhat and we selfishly kept putting off the inevitable. Needless to say although we knew the time had arrived the decision broke our hearts.
I had believed that I would be insulated somewhat from the shock of her parting since my bond with her wasn’t nearly as strong as Kim’s, but I have been devastated nonetheless.
In spite of our pain now we are grateful for the many years of companionship she gave us.
Goodbye, our sweet girl. We loved you so much and will miss you.