If you look up “cute” in the dog-shun-nary, I wouldn’t be suh-prised if there was a pickshur of Millie an Kambrie Daugherty, or at least there SHOULD be.
Millie an Kambrie are Toy Poodles. Both grrrls. Millie’s almost 5. Her color’s called caah-FAY oh LAY, which is French for coffee with milk. (I Googled.) It’s zackly what her color is. Real priddy, with, like a zillion tight poodle-y curls.
Kambrie’s gonna be just 2 in August. She’s black-an-white an looks like a buncha Oreo cookies: real priddy, an un-usual, an she had long, showdog legs, I couldn’t help but observe. She explained her oh-FISH-ull color name is Party Poodle, an she definitely looked fess-tive an party-ready.
She was also wearing a snug, pink-striped sorta body suit, which she later explained was a speshull wrap to keep her tummy an stuff snug cuz she just had SUR-jury. She’s almost all fine now.
Soon as the door opened, it seemed like a lot more than two pooches twirled up for the Wag-an-Sniff, in a flurry of barkety-barkin’, an wiggle-waggin’.
“HI! I’m Millie Daugherty! This is my liddle sister Kambrie! She just had a pruh-SEED-jure at the Vet’s, so she’s gotta wear a speshull wrap thingy. THIS is our Mommy, Jessica. An THIS,” (she nudged a liddle, long-haired red/gold pooch) “is a FREN. We pooch-sit her! An you’re Mr. Bonzo, right?” Millie declared rhetorically.
“Yep, that’s me!” I said. “So happy to meet all of you!”
We settled in on a comfy sofa; I got out my notebook; Kambrie sat on their Mommy’s lap; Millie snuggled nex to my assistant; and their liddle FREN curled up on a nearby Dog Bed.
“I’m gonna be Spokespooch, if that’s OK,” said Millie.
“Pawsome,” I replied. “I’m ready when you are.”
“Our story’s probly a liddle COM-pli-cated,” she said. “Me an my human brother, Lochlan, were born only 2 weeks apart, so Mommy had TWO babies to take care of! Me an Lochlan are growin’ UP together! We’re gonna be 5 in Joon! We’re total Besties. Kambrie, too.
“OK, so, back in EYE-oh-wah, where we usta live, Mommy had sister rescue pooches Jada an Lexi. Mommy had just had a pupper herself, or rather, a BABY in human. That was Lochlan.
When Lochlan was only a week old, Lexi hadda go to Dog Heaven. (She was 13 which is preddy old in Dog years.)
“Mommy was super happy cuzza Lochlan, but also sad cuz she’d had Jada an Lexi since she was 19; an Jada was what Mommy calls dis-POND-dent an duh-PRESSED. She kept lookin’ for Lexi all over the place. An this is the amazin’ part, Mr. Bonzo: A day after Lexi went to heaven, I was born, inna place Up North where a nice lady took in Very Many poodles rescued from awful places called Puppy Mills. Mommy had decided to find another pupper so Jada wouldn’t be All Alone. By then, I was an 8-week-old fluffball, an Mommy saw my pickshut on FACEbook. When Mommy saw my birthday she decided it was a SIGN. All I know is, I gotta big SIS-ter. She was The BEST!
“Jada was SO kind to me an I loved her a LOT. But then, about 3 years after we moved to down here, Jada hadda go to Dog Heaven, also.”
“Oh, Woof, Millie!” I exclaimed.
“I was SO sad an duh-pressed. She’d been my ’dopted pooch mamma AN sister. Even now, Mommy tries not to say her name cuz sometimes, when I hear it, I get sad, an start lookin’ for her. So does Kambrie.”
Then Kambrie spoke up: “I’m tellin’ this part, OK?” she said, standing up on her very long, graceful legs, an stretching.
“Mommy saw a pickshur of me On Line with a yellow ribbon on my head. (I DO look very nice in yellow. Just sayin’.) Mommy says it was a SIGN. All I know is, I gotta big sister. She’s the BEST! She noticed right away that all my Oreo colors mixed looked like all my my pupper sisters (Lexi, Jada, and Millie).”
“YOU’RE the Best, TOO!” said Millie.” It was TOTALLY Meant To Be!”
“Great Tails with happy endings!” I exclaimed. “So tell me about what life’s like these days.”
I was writing so fast I broke my pencil an hadda root around in The Satchel for another one. Pencil emergency handled, we continued.
“We have so much fun every day,” said Millie with enthusiasm. “Speshully cuz our Mommy’s an o-FISH-shull Pet Sitting Manager for South Paw, an we offen have a dog fren visitin’ when their humans can’t take ’em WITH. We play an play an play! TRAY Cool Kibbles!
“I haff to say,” she added, “I sorta hope Kambrie’s legs don’t get any taller. I’m so short I can ackshully walk right under her, which is a liddle embarrassing sometimes.”
“Oh, silly!” Kambrie laughed. “You’re just the right size! I just happen to be a liddle leggy.”
“Do you like car rides?”
“We hardly ever do car rides. Mostly just for vet check-ups,” said Millie. “When Mommy drove Kambrie to her surgery, I couldn’t go, an I HOWLED and HOWLED cuz I thought Kambrie was NEVER COMING BACK. It was SCARY.”
“What about fave toys? Speshull outfits?” I asked, noticing a BIG basket filled with toys nearby.
“The newest one’s always my fave!” said Kambrie.
“My fave’s a chewy bone that’s the same color as ME,” added Millie. “An we LOVE dressin’ up on holidays!”
“YES WE DO!” agreed Kambrie. “Last Valentine Day we wore sweaters with red hearts, an Locklan hadda red shirt with ‘LOVE’ on the front.”
Headin’ home, I was thinkin’ of all the different ways pets an their Furever Famlies find each other, so often under the most unusual an unexpected circumstances. It’s mysterious an wonderful, in my opinion. I was also thinkin’ about my lovely evening dish of yoghurt.
