Penny loves every kind of water - except for her bath. If we walk in Darebin Parklands in wet weather there's a particular place where a muddy puddle forms and Penny will always plonk herself into it, often rolling over (to make quite sure she collects enough dirt to cover the entire kitchen floor).
When we walk along the creek in summer we have to watch out that she doesn't suddenly disappear down the bank into the creek.
And I still don't like to recall the time that she launched herself suddenly into the Yarra River at Studley Park to chase a ball and then couldn't climb up the bank. Suffice it to say I got rather muddy before she was on land again.
Last night I was following a link from one of my favorite blogs, The Pet Museum, and arrived at The Poodle History Project. For a lover of literature and of history, this site is an endless source of entertainment. Incidentally, those who grew up as I did devouring the Regency romances of Georgette Heyer, will be interested in the part about the Prince Regent's friend 'Poodle Byng'.
Okay, so what does this have to do with Penny rolling in puddles? Well, as I have mentioned before, her ancestry is somewhat mysterious. She was sold to us as a maltese X shih tzu with one poodle grandparent. We've always taken the poodle heritage with a grain of salt, except for occasional remarks by passers-by about her coat or the shape of her muzzle. What we hadn't taken into consideration was her passion for water.
I hadn't made the connection between the word 'poodle' and the word 'puddle' until last night. I looked it up on a few etymological sites and there it was... They come from the same linguistic source - poodles are puddle dogs.
So, maybe Penny does have poodle ancestry. Of course, that leads to a new nickname for her - 'Penny the Puddler'. (One of the other ones is The Flying Carpet).
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8 comments:
Wishing you and your family a very happy new year 2008!!!
nose licks
baily
Baily, thanks for that. I wish the same to you. I love your blog and will be calling by whenever GoogleReader tells me you have posted something new.
So just how would you explain a "puddle" German Shepherd, Puddle Penny (ex-Princess Penny and I think "the flying mop!)?
2008 is already flying by so I hope it will bring lots of enjoyable doggie adventures, Penny and Parlance.
Big Slurps for you both,
Jabari
Jabari, I think you are too aristocratic to be called a 'puddle GSD'. You have, perhaps, been influenced by a certain Puddle Princess and she has taught you to love water too much. Beats me how a dog that should be rounding up (or is it protecting?) sheep is swimming around herding tennis balls.
Oh, I always purposely walk on puddles whenever there's one. Even when it's very shalow, I want to walk on it. It's just one of those things that I have to do. Coz I like water so much, I find puddles so much fun to step in. Kekeke!
Love licks,
Solid Gold Dancer
Amber-Mae, I've seen from your blog photos that you are almost a mermaid, you love water so much. Perhaps you should be called Solid Gold Puddle-Dancer!
We (Mum and I) just looked at Bailey's site and we thought that we could see Penny's coat, head shape etc in Bailey (prior to shaving!!) So we can definitely see Maltese in her. We are waiting(boring!) for those nuisance boys to come and stay but we would have preferred to be running with Penny As it is going to be hot again, I guess I will have to settle for a bath and wrestle in the backyard with the boys.
lick, lick,
Jabari
Jabari, I also thought Bailey reminded me of Penny. It's a good site, isn't it? I notice there've been no posts for a while. I'm looking forward to more, partly because I love Germany.
Penny and I did get out for a quick walk this morning before it got too hot but I think she's getting used to the idea of a late-night walk when the air is cooler. I know she thinks it's a good chance to snaffle food in the dark but I'm going to take a torch tonight, thus proving that I can (sometimes) outsmart a dog.
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