Pudu And PooDoo

The other day I spotted a news story online that made both of us smile, and opened up some lovely memories. The story was about the birth of a doe at the Queens Zoo in New York. The new baby weighed one pound at birth, and is a member of an endangered species of deer called pudu, pronounced poo-doo. Pudu are native to Chile and Argentina, and, when fully grown weigh about twenty pounds and are twelve to fourteen inches tall at the shoulder. If you want to see something adorable, feast your eyes on this baby pudu.

Is that a cutie, or what? I am sure that at this point you're thinking that it is sweet and all, but it doesn't take much to make their day, does it? Well, I can understand you thinking that. The reason that it made our day is that we used to call our little dog Paris a PooDoo. There's a valid reason for us to use the nickname PooDoo. You see, Paris the poodle was a very smart dog. When she got a new toy, we would give it a name. As she began playing with her new toy, let's say a purple stuffed poodle with a squeaker in the noggin, we'd tell her the name a few times. Usually she had it down by about the third repetition. Paris had numerous toys, such as Cow, Boney-bone, Elephant, Ball, Santa...and Poodle. All it would take was a mention of the name of the toy, and she would jump into action. She'd stand at the end of the bed, stomping her feet and "talking" up a storm. She was ready to play, and waiting for us to throw her toy. So after she got her toy poodle, we couldn't call her our poodle any more without creating a scene, and a PooDoo was born. 

After I saw the story and gasped at the name of the miniature deer, I shared the picture and name with Trent. We felt all gooshy and happy about it, and had fun talking about some memories of our precious little Poodoo. She may have been only ten inches tall at the shoulder, and all of eight and a half pounds, but she had a brave and huge heart. I still get a laugh every time I get hiccups, because it reminds me of her. Apparently when I hiccuped she thought something had happened to startle me. She would jump to attention from wherever she was, spinning around mid-jump so that she'd land facing the front door. She had a bark and a few growls for whoever it was that had scared her Mommy and made her gasp.

I'm glad that the passage of nearly a year since we lost our little Paris has softened the harsh pain we have felt at losing her. We have gradually come to the point of being able to have moments of laughter about the fun times we had with her and her idiosyncrasies. Even though she is gone, the memories of times with her still enrich our lives. Twelve and a half years with a loving and intelligent creature will do that to you. 

I have shared a picture of the pudu, so I'd be remiss if I didn't share one of the PooDoo, so here's our girl Paris. I hope that whatever critters you love enrich your life like she has done with ours.