I call this story what I do, because both of my dogs were poodles. I got the first dog; her name was Ivory, from the Humane Society in Sebring, Florida. She was a pure breed white poodle and she was the most beautiful little girl I have ever seen. When I went to sign the adoption papers, I saw her and immediately fell in love with her and knew I wanted to take her home. So a few days later after all the papers were filed and the vet checked her out she finally got to come home. But she came home once before that and we had to return her, because by law she could not be taken home since she was not spayed. So we had to take her back and she knew it and hid under an end table and being a big guy I picked up the table as my brother picked her up and we had to return her and got her back the next day. She was home with us and stayed that way. A few weeks go by and we went and looked at another poodle and his name was Popi. He was called Popi because he was 10 when we got him and he had raised a puppy by himself. My brother and I went and looked at the two dogs, Popi and his younger counter part. The younger one got taken away, right away. Everyone wanted the young dog, but no one wanted Popi. My brother and I went by and looked at him and asked a few things about him and the lady answered our questions. He and his puppy were there because an older lady had them and had to go to a nursing home. The puppy was already gone but not Popi, he was still there all alone looking out at us and thinking take me home with you. Vince and I told the lady we would talk it over and proceeded to the next town on down the road. My friend Ray happened to be with us and Vince and I talked it over and we decided to go and get Popi and give him a home. So we did and Popi and Ivory were best of friends. We had Popi for almost 9 years. Popi passed away about 3 years ago and Ivory, Vince and I were just broken up by this. I had friends say they feel for me and others said everything will be all right. We dealt with this we still miss Popi. A few years later Ivory passes away, which will be one year come November 11, 2007, since she passed away, which will be a year on that date. I won’t ever forget it, because she had not been eating right and we took her to the vet, she stays over night and we get a terrible phone call the next morning, saying she has about a month, maybe less to live. We were told she had cancer. We took her to Medvet in Columbus, they tried everything they could and told us she did not have cancer. She was diabetic and Vince and I did not know she was at all. She passed away the very next morning, almost 200 miles away from me at the hospital in Columbus. We got the terrible call that morning at 3:37 a.m. and Vince and I were devastated. We lost our other best friend. A month goes by and we are still coping with the loss of Ivory as well as Popi and the groomer we took them too had a rescue dog, which happened to be a poodle. He is a silver poodle or smoke colored, which is why we call him Smokey. My mother got him for us for Christmas and we have had Smokey now for just under a year. I miss Ivory and Popi more and more every passing day. Smokey is now Vince and my best friend. The little guy really helped us through a lot and I thank him for that. I will always remember Ivory and Popi, after all, they were my first dogs and I still love and miss them very much.

Vance from Ohio