Bite the hand that feeds you

"If you pick up a starving dog and make him prosperous, he will not bite you; that is the principal difference between dog and man." ~Mark Twain


Well, Mr Twain never met the moppet poodle. There it was, on the edge of the road on my way to work and there it was still on my way home. So, sucker that I am, I picked up a humane trap and managed to snag the mop-of-dreadlocks and take it home. And, unlike Mr Twain's observations, I found it would attempt to bite me through the cage, when I tried to feed it, and even when I looped a leash on to take it out to potty. Ah, but I did determine that it was actually a she. How? Through 4 inch piles of matted hair? I didn't attempt to 'look' ... since that end was pretty darned filthy, not to mention the other end would bite my face off...nope, it was as simple as she squatted to pee.


Ignoring her thankless behavior, I did manage to haul her into the local vet for a serious shaving down and some vaccines. I dropped her off as 'no name' and asked that the poor gromer, who had a nasty clean-up job, please give the dog a name. I guess a haircut was just the change she needed in her life, 'cause her attitude did a 180...when I picked her up from the vet she acted like I was her long lost mother. She lost 10% of her weight with a single haircut. Maybe she was just trying to thank me, eh?


Oh, the name? The groomer named her Marley...as in Bob Marley ( of the infamous dreadlocks). Besides putting herself in the path of a sucker (me), Marley had another stroke of luck - I managed to find a Poodle Rescue willing to take her and find her a home! The Central Carolina Poodle Club Rescue took her in even though the little mite was blind in one eye, cataracts in the other, and was still a bit snippy with strangers. She should available for adoption on their site soon.