Little Bella just had lunch and is asleep in her crate right now so I thought I'd grab some computer time.

Angels3....yes Trevor is 20 1/2 lbs. He was 22 lbs., but last week at the vet's he weighed in at 20 1/2. He is a BIG kitty all over (long too) but he really could take off a couple of pounds. I just bought IAMS Less Active formula for both kitties and that maybe will help.

Lesley and Karen....about the breeder situation...I have e-mailed and talked on the phone to several breeders. Some of them are down-right weird. One breeder wanted to inspect MY home and INTERVIEW me at her home. Also, she required a stay-at-home person during the day. We never even got to discuss price because the whole thing was a real turnoff!

In my searches over the years for my other poodles I have run across breeders who have loopholes when you buy a dog. Some of them want to make a deal with you about breeding your female and getting pick of the litter, and some want freedom to use your pup as a stud possibly later. These are also turnoffs to me! When I buy a puppy, that puppy is mine and all links to the breeder are terminated. Maybe others would disagree.

The breeder who I got Bella from has been breeding poodles for about 10 years. Her brother breeds them also. We visited her brother's litter first (they were a litter of blacks which my husband had thought would be nice because our Whitney was black). I didn't want the same color. I want NO comparisons. I don't think it's fair to Whitney's memory or the new pup and, even though we wouldn't be intentionally doing it, the presence of another black standard poodle would possibly make comparison unavoidable. Also I didn't want our pup to be viewed as a "substitute for Whitney." Anyway, after seeing the black puppies, we visited the sister's puppies. She had the cream colord puppies.... 2 boys and 1 girl left and a deposit was coming in the mail from Michigan for the girl (our Bella). Since the deposit had not arrived, she said it was "first come, first served" so we got our girl!! She wants me to keep in touch with her from time to time....no strings.... (since she is only about an hour away) so I will ask her when I talk to her next if that deposit ever came. When we left with Bella, the breeder cried. Big crocodile tears! She said she does this every time a puppy leaves. I could never be a breeder. I would do the same thing!

Oh, I forgot to mention.....haha! I went to these breeders without hubby knowing I was going. My daughter went with me. My thought was to just "look" and bring him later. In all honesty I was afraid he would insist on a black pup and I wanted to see both litters for myself first and do all of the initial evaluating without him there. While I was at the breeder's I called him at work and asked for permission to buy her and he said OK. Well, the rest is history! Needless to say, he LOVES little Bella.

Karen I initially wanted to get a rescue dog, but hubby wanted only a poodle and we thought a puppy was the best way to go in order to have a smoother transition with the cats. You don't see poodle puppies at petfinder.com. Trust me.....I have been looking!! Whatever you decide, please keep us all posted. Give a hug to Marius for me. I have a soft spot for him since it sounds like he will be in Andy's and Trevor's shoes one of these days!!!