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Washington, United States
loves: you win if you guessed "pets" and "museums". Also books, art history, travel, British punk, Korean kimchi, bindis, martinis, and other things TBD. I will always make it very clear if a post is sponsored in any way. Drop me a line at thepetmuseum AT gmail.com !

Sunday, December 30, 2007

poodle drama

I was reading a story in yesterday's Portland Oregonian about pets in the news. Of course they mentioned that awful story about the tiger in the San Francisco Zoo -- which made me awfully sad every which way -- but they had other, happier ones.

How could you not like the happy ending for Mango, the teacup poodle squashed by a pot of Thanksgiving stuffing? Some timely CPR and a trip to the emergency vet, and she lived to tell the tale. Which you may read here.

While I was looking for the link to that story, I stumbled across a most interesting labor of poodle love: The Poodle History Project. Here I learned, among other things, that Beethoven wrote a lied (short lyrical German song) about the death of a poodle, and that famed poodle owners include the Empress Josephine, Victor Hugo, Billie Holliday, and Thomas Mann.

Funny, one would think a poodle would be a cheering companion, but it didn't work for Thomas Mann. . . or maybe I'm just cranky because I keep stalling out in the center of The Magic Mountain.

1 comment:

parlance said...

The poodle history link is fascinating. It got me to wondering about the relationship of the words "puddle" and "poodle", seeing it uses the term 'water spaniel'.

Interesting to see the connection with the word puddle as 'little pool' and the use of the verb 'to puddle' meaning to splash in water. http://www.etymonline.com/index.php?term=poodle