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Whatever
Happened to Cosby?
by Russ and Joanne Alderman
 Two years ago we went to Carolina Poodle
Rescue (CPR) to adopt a dog for me after Duke, my canine
companion for 13 years, passed away. My wife, Joanne, had
already adopted a dog that she could take to work at her
shop. I mourned my buddy, but I finally had to find
someone to fill my days. When we got to CPR, we were
introduced to several candidates, among whom was a scruffy
white dog named Zena. She was a happy dog that came right
up to me and begged: “Pick me! Pick me!” So, I did.
As we were working out the adoption details, another
worker brought in a cute, fuzzy little dog that Joanne
fell instantly in love with. She wanted to take him, too.
That was Cosby. However, the staff said Cosby had some
issues that we needed to be aware of. He would guard his
food bowl against all comers and would growl and snap when
he had to be taken from his crate. But he loved people,
and it was hoped that he’d do better in a home
environment. Overall, he sounded like a problem to me, and
I really didn’t want three dogs. I was opposed to adopting
him but my wife offered to take him on as a foster
instead. Okay, three dogs, for a while, I thought.
On our way home, Cosby settled down in Joanne’s lap and
snoozed through most of the trip. He was such a cute
little guy that he almost won me over right there. But we
were not ready for what we got when he awakened. We
stopped at a pet store to get some supplies for the new
family members, and Joanne took Cosby to pee on the dog
walk. At least, that’s what she intended to do. As
she headed over to the dog walk, Cosby backed out of his
collar and ran after a customer who was exiting the shop.
An employee saw him and quickly picked him up. Okay. First
thing on the list: New escape proof collar for
Cosby.
‘Escape proof’ collar, did I say? He managed to slip out
of it and every dog collar we tried on him. We finally
resorted to a harness, only to find he can sometimes get
his front legs out of it! He was, and still is, a regular
Houdini.
When we got him home, Cosby showed his other side. He
could be cute, he could be cuddly, but—when he was not—he
was awful. Peeing and pooping in the house (even though we
had a dog door to a large penned area), growling, biting,
and running away at every opportunity. He was a
master at running away: small, agile, and quick. Open the
door and out goes Cosby, often right between your feet!
Some of his episodes were comic. Before we resorted to a
harness he slipped out of his collar in downtown Landrum
and ran right into the local CVS drug store. Imagine
chasing a runaway dog down aisles full of merchandise and
shoppers. Well, I don’t have to imagine—I did it.
Other episodes could have been tragic. Cosby brought
traffic to a halt in front of our house more than once in
his runaway moments. Traffic doesn’t always stop for dogs.
All I can say is he was being looked after by the same
angel that looks after idiots and little children. We were
grateful, of course, but Cosby seemingly didn’t
care. As Joanne said back then, “He’s cute as a
button, but dumb as a post.”
Two years later, anyone who had seen him then and saw him
now would be convinced that he was spirited away and
replaced by a look-alike. No more ‘accidents’ or running
away. Sure, he grumps a bit from time to time and he does
NOT like to be totally restrained, but he’s not the
unpredictable, nasty guy he was.
Now we can let him into the unfenced yard—his former
escape route—without worrying. He’ll hang around outdoors
with Zena or the cats (his buddies—but he’ll never admit
it) and when he’s done he’ll come up to the door and whine
to be let in. The part I love best is he’ll come running
whenever I call him.
He listens to us. He understands “no” and, in the
house, he stays nearby us. In fact when I’m home alone and
move from room to room he follows me, and if he gets
spooked, he’s right by one or the other of us in a flash.
He has learned commands we’ve never deliberately taught
him: “stay,“ “come,” and “night-night” are examples. When
he starts the annoying habit of licking his paws, all
Joanne has to do is say,“Cosby, stop licking, please”, and
he immediately stops. He’s learning! No one thinks he’s
dumb as a post any longer.
He loves his dog bed in the living room, where he snoozes
a lot in the day, but at night he cuddles up with us.
Cuddles? Well, not always. There is the “Cosby crunch” to
contend with. He will throw himself down against you to
maximize the union. I liken the crunch to the “bump” that
we’d see when our previous dogs would walk along side by
side and bump together as a friendly gesture. Some dogs
would even do it to me when I walked them, and I felt
honored.
At night Cosby sleeps right between us, often at the head
of the bed. However, our bed is a bit tall for him, so
when he wants to come up I lean over, hold out my
hands, and he jumps into my arms. But there is more to it
than that. It’s become a little ritual: he jumps up, I
grab him and land him on the bed and then, as he sits
there, I pet his back and he licks my arms. Finally, I pat
him on the butt twice, and he settles down. Not a word
said. I guess we’re bonded. I used to call him “little
monster” but now he’s “little guy” and he’s become, in
many ways, my best dog buddy.
What happened? What can I say? It’s our fault as usual. We
ruined him.
Ruining Cosby wasn’t easy. We had to forgive his mishaps.
Keep our tempers—even when he bit us. Never scold him
unless we actually caught him misbehaving. Most of all,
absolutely most of all, we had to keep loving him. Hugs,
petting, lots and LOTS of tummy rubs, treats when he
behaved, forgiveness without question, love and more love.
So much love that I’d say we stuffed him so full that he
had to give it back or burst.
Maybe we overdid it. He bursts a lot. When we come home he
bursts out barking, or wagging and wriggling in a sniff
fest. At feeding time he bursts out in his crazy “dinner
dance” and he sometimes bursts out in another sniff and
wiggle fest when one of our other critters comes in.
That’s OK, we keep refilling him with love and he keeps
giving it back, in bursts or in cuddles.
The former little monster is family now. He’s the
happy little fuzzball he was meant to be.
Thanks be to God.
Happy Tails
Angus
by Rabbi Arthur and Elaine
Grae
 My lovely and kind Scottish wife
instantly fell head over heels in love with a gorgeous
bit of grayish Persian lamb fluff at Carolina Poodle
Rescue and we immediately adopted him. He is now known
as "Angus MdFee." (Formerly called Danny at the Farm.)
He has an incredibly sweet temperament and is an
absolute knockout. He almost immediately bonded with
Elaine and is her shadow, following her intensely
around our home, which he seems to love. He was a
splendid traveler in our vehicle riding the 501 miles
back to Leesburg, Florida from the farm in South
Carolina.
 Angus is just a magnificent little
poodle, at 14 .4 lbs, a much smaller version of a
combination of our three former 60-70 pound standard
poodles--1/5 the size but packed with similar
qualities.
So, he is still prancing around our house delighting
himself with new discoveries--especially a large
POODLE toy box--a truly incredible find for him. He
loved sleeping with us last night and snuggled in my
arms.
We are both overjoyed and are recovering from our
sadness over our loss of Haggis, our cream colored
Standard.
Let me tell you how smart this little guy is. He was
lying in his dog bed in the hatchback area of our
vehicle on the trip back. He was tethered by a long
leash tied around a seat. However, Angus needed his
favorite toy. Suddenly, I heard a noise from the back
seat. I looked and saw his head buried deep in a large
plastic bag of supplies from the farm. He explored the
container and his head came up holding his favorite
toy in his mouth. I couldn't get over it. Elaine
called him a "wee monkey."
We both want to thank you for enabling our adoption of
Angus McFee. He has made us happy once again in our
retirement. You are involved in such a worthy
endeavor. I have nothing but praise for the
organization of your rescue group and its operation.
Also, Donna Ezzell is just a fine human being and so
immensely helpful. The staff was also very kind and
caring. I especially enjoyed a lady who obviously
groomed Angus, who spoke with an admitted "hillbilly"
accent and was very proud of it.
Doc
by Kristin and Daniel
Messina
 We are SO happy with little Doc
(formerly Mozart)! He is a bright spot here and
loving every minute of it. Buddy seems to have
perked up so much and is "teaching" and mentoring
Doc. Doc is doing so many adorable like trying to
get to know the cats and also looking at himself
in the curio cabinet mirror! He jumps back and it
is so funny!
Also, he is so smart. He began to go down the
steps into the fenced in yard the same afternoon
we brought him home and also raided the whole toy
basket to pick out what he wanted in addition to
what Amy sent home with us. His favorite sleeping
toy is the green dragon.
I am so happy . . . having a puppy is tiring but
he's keeping my mind off other things which is
great. He's sleeping in his little bed next to me
right now. He's been up all day since early and
only napped for a while. He got a bath today and
did really well. We're going to make a vet
appointment tomorrow.
I would love to send photos as Doc is growing up
and also holiday photos when we take him to visit
Santa.
Do you
have a story to share or an update? We'd love to
include it in a newsletter! It doesn't have to be
long; just a quick update and a photo would be
great. Please send it to
newsletter@carolinapoodlerescue.org.
Do We Know that You Want to
Help?
by Richard Szulewski
 Did a story in this newsletter or on our
Facebook page move you or touch your heart? Do you have
some time you are willing to use to make a difference for
the animals that come to Carolina Poodle Rescue?
No matter where you live or how much time you can share,
we can use your help. For those close to Dreamweaver Farm,
we welcome your helping hands. For those far from the
sound of the barking, there are a variety of ways you can
make a difference. While certain skills are always in
short supply, if you care and are willing to share your
time, we would love to talk to you.
You can tell us that you want to help by going to this web
form. This will allow us to reach you and follow up
on your generous offer to help us fulfill our goal to help
each animal that we can, one by one, until there are none.
While you are filling in the Volunteer interest box,
please fill in the address, telephone and email
information at the top of the form. We will use this to
update the contact information we have for you. We promise
we will never share this information outside of CPR. We
only keep the basics needed to stay in touch; nothing that
would jeopardize your situation.
Feature Pet of
the Month
Meet Oreo!
 Oreo is a Yorkie
Poo estimated to be around three
years old. He is a one of a
kind--you can see it in his
face. He needs to be someone's
one and only. In return that
person or couple would be the
center of his universe! He is
really a one person dog.
Oreo needs a quiet home. He gets
easily overwhelmed by loud
noises, busy atmospheres, or
other animals or small children.
When he trusts someone he is
their best friend. He just wants
to be beside his best friend as
much as possible and would
follow that person everywhere.
He loves unconditionally.
He has some separation anxiety
so an ideal home for him would
be with someone who is home most
of the time--perhaps someone
retired or who works from home.
But he needs to be the only dog
because he resource guards
people that he loves and is
unpredictable around other dogs
(even though he is only 6
pounds).
His energy is good and he would
adore going for walk with his
person. He does great on a leash
but he will bark, bark, bark at
new people and other dogs. He is
okay with most new people but
not with everyone. He is a
particular little guy.
What he does love are stuffed
squeaky toys. At the farm he has
a staffed frog that he plays
with. He is also the ultimate
cuddle. He wants to be in a lap
all day. If he isn't picked up
he will cry and bark at you
until he gets into your lap.
Although he is crate
trained, he tries to
convince new people that he
isn't. He will throw a fit for
about 10 minutes but after
someone walks away, he
settles down and goes to sleep.
A staff members at CPR describes
him as one of the sweetest, most
loving animals that they have
ever met--even with all of his
quirks. But Oreo thinks that
quirks just make a guy
interesting!
If you are interested in Oreo,
please visit our adoption
application page.
2016 Carolina Poodle Rescue Calendar
These calendars are now available for
sale and
featuring some
beautiful dogs
to make you
smile
throughout the
whole year.
Join CPR's
Facebook Page for Friends &
Family
Why join
another Facebook group? Well, if
you love poodles or rescue dogs in
general, if you want to keep in
closer touch with the CPR
community and everything that is
going on at the Farm, with the
current dogs, with adopted dogs,
and with incoming dogs, then this
is the place to be. We asked some
of the members of the CPR
Friends and Family Page why
they love being a part of the
page:
Hope to
see you there! https://www.facebook.com/groups/122083703951/
Please
Stay in Touch
If you have
moved or plan to move in the
near feature, please drop a
line to CPR and let us know!
We don't want to lose touch.
Just send an email with your
new mailing address and/or
email address to
cprmail@carolinapoodlerescue.org.
We always love hearing from
the CPR community!
And if you
have a story about your CPR dog
(or cat), we'd love for you to
share it--happy homecomings,
travel adventures, training
achievements, or simply a story
that you'd like to share about
your CPR family member. Please
send it to
newsletter@carolinapoodlerescue.org.
The Rainbow Bridge
Dedicated to
those who have passed
over.
"Charlie Wonka"
Dreamweaver Farms--Pacolet,
SC
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"Clancy"
Mary
Winburn--Port
Orange, FL
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"Rugsy"
Dreamweaver
Farms--Pacolet, SC
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"Spice"
Mary Winburn,
foster--Port
Orange, FL
Dreamweaver
Farms--Pacolet,
SC
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