I have a little Maltipoo named Todd.
Maltipoos are considered designer dogs, but in all reality, they are just fancy mutts.
Todd is half Maltese and half Poodle.
We got Todd in December 2015.
But how we got him is quite the story…
I have loved dogs for as long as I’ve been alive. My Grandaddy had bird dogs: Brittany Spaniels, German Short Hair Pointers, English Pointers, and Swedish Pointers. He loved to quail hunt in Texas every year, and to do that, he needed hunting dogs.
But there was a catch… he didn’t like to hear dogs bark, so, the dogs lived at our house. My mom took care of them for Grandaddy. He paid her $100 a month to feed and water them. Every afternoon she would go outside to let each dog out of their pen to run. She would clean their pen, change their water and feed them. Each dog got several minutes to run and play, then she would move to the next pen and do it all again. I think she enjoyed her time with the dogs. We didn’t exactly enjoy hearing them bark, either. We became experts in knowing what each dog’s bark sounded like. It wasn’t at all uncommon for my mom to open the front door in the middle of the night and holler, “shut up, Major, go to sleep, Sam, stop barking, Fred, that’s enough out of you Fritz” We would get a few hours of sleep and then they would bark again. When the moon was full, they barked even more. They were aware of every critter that came into our yard. At one point in time, we had as many as 15 dogs at once. It was kind of like a circus. But I loved those dogs. As I got older, I began to take my turn taking care of the dogs. I helped give their medicines and their injections each year. I helped birth the puppies. And when we had puppies… that was the best time of all. A litter of puppies meant that I was in heaven! I would hold them, love them, bathe them, and bring them inside… it was my favorite. When the puppies would get old enough, my grandaddy would sell them or give them away. He encouraged me to spend as much time with them as possible beforehand to get the puppies accustomed to human interaction and love. Sometimes I would spoil them just a little too much. I remember one year, we had the cutest litter of pointer puppies. I named them Huey, Dewey, and Louie after the ducks on Ducktales. When I would get home from school, they would start barking because they wanted me to come to get them out and play with them. I remember another year, we got a puppy named Texas. It was my job to do some training with him and also get him comfortable around people. I carried that dog around everywhere.
I spent so much time around puppies that when my mom brought my baby brother home from the hospital, I was shocked that he already had his eyes open. You know, because puppies weren’t born with their eyes open.
I loved dogs.
When I was in elementary school, we got a little dog named Cocoa. She was a small red dog that most likely had some chihuahua in her.
She became my very best friend. I loved that dog more than most humans. When I came home from school every day, I would get her, and we would ride the 3-wheeler together. I told her about every bad thing in my life. She never told a soul. I still get choked up thinking about Cocoa. If I had loved dogs before Cocoa, my love was even stronger after her. I mourned her death as a teenager. I even gathered some of her hair to keep just in case some time in the future, they were to perfect cloning. She was my baby. She was there for me through some of my hardest years. I never got over her death. I found the ziplock bag with her hair the other day stuck in a storage box. My kids thought that was the most bizarre thing ever. I just laughed at them. And they laughed at me. Hey, if cloning ever becomes common, I’m ready!
When Jeremy and I got married, we got a dog. We named her Stormy. I loved Stormy and every dog that we had after her.
We had a little mutt that we named Pepper. She was our baby when our kids were younger. I loved her too. She was precious, but she wasn’t Cocoa.
My parents have had several dogs since Cocoa, and they’ve continued to name them Cocoa. I think the last one’s name was Cocoa Four. That makes me giggle. There might have been four of them named Cocoa, but there was never another one like the first one.
Our daughter had severe allergies and skin issues when she was younger. So having a dog in the house was a huge no-no. The allergy doctor told us not to think about getting an inside dog.
Until…
We had neighbors who had six dogs. They rescued dogs that were in shelters or surrendered by their owners. There was a plethora of breeds in their dog family, but one of those six dogs was a Maltipoo.
His name was Lucky.
When our neighbors would go on vacation, we would take care of their dogs. We would go to their house several times each day to play with the dogs and let them out to run.
We started bringing Lucky home with us.
At first, he would stay just during the day for a couple of hours. Then he started staying overnight. Pretty soon, he was spending weeks with us at a time. My daughter’s allergies weren’t affected at all. In fact, the dog seemed to comfort her and help the situation. She would pet the dog instead of scratching her skin.
It was a miracle, and I was thrilled.
Jeremy never really wanted an inside dog, but Lucky began to slowly change his mind.
Since Lucky’s owners had six dogs, they decided they would just let us have Lucky. Jeremy agreed and I felt like I had won the lottery.
We took Lucky to his owner’s house to stay while we went on a quick family vacation that December. The plan was to tell the kids on Christmas Eve that we would keep Lucky, and he would be our dog.
On our way home from that vacation, the owner called and said she had changed her mind. She just couldn’t let Lucky go.
I was devastated. I cried and cried and surprisingly Jeremy was also sad that we weren’t going to keep Lucky.
I began to search the internet for a Maltipoo puppy. Unfortunately, since it was Christmas time, none of the local breeders had any available.
We didn’t want to get another breed because we had seen that the Maltipoo breed didn’t affect my daughter’s allergies and skin. We couldn’t just rescue one. It had to be a Maltipoo.
Jeremy went to do some last-minute Christmas shopping the week of Christmas. He called me and said he initially planned to surprise me but thought he should call me first after thinking about it. He was excited to tell me he found a Maltipoo puppy for sale not too far away from where we lived. He wanted to get it and bring it home.
I think I screamed with excitement.
And so that’s what he did. He drove 2 hours away and picked the puppy up in a Mcdonald’s parking lot.
He took the puppy to the pet store and bought all the things he needed. And then he came home.
I have a video of the moment he brought him home. The puppy was tiny enough to fit inside his jacket, so he sat down and nonchalantly unzipped his coat and out popped Todd.
The kids shrieked with excitement.
My daughter immediately wanted to name him Marshmallow because he was a fluff of white.
After many name options, we decided on Todd because one of Jeremy’s favorite movies was The Fox and The Hound… and even though it was the fox whose name was Todd, we liked it best. Since he was a small, fluffy dog we decided he needed a manly name.
Todd was supposed to belong to the entire family, but after a very short time, he decided I was his person. And for the first time in all those years, I loved a dog just like I loved Cocoa.
Maybe even more, and I never thought that was possible.
He’s my baby. My kids even accuse me of loving him more than them.
That is not true, but I love him more than many humans.
He sleeps right next to me. He knows when I’m having a bad day, he stays close when I’m sick, and when I just need a good cry, he’s there for me.
If you’ve never had a dog like this, you might not understand the connection one can have with a dog, but if you have, you know exactly what I’m talking about.
These animals are special. They love differently. They are loyal.
They say that dogs and their owners can have the same personality. I would agree with that.
Todd likes who he likes. He feels comfortable enough to be himself around very few people. He’s leery of new folks. He doesn’t immediately take to people. He waits for them to prove themselves before he does. He likes to play fight with my son. He consoles my daughter, and he thinks Jeremy can do no wrong.
For those who have met Todd, you know what I’m talking about. He’s not your regular, everyday run-of-the-mill, happy-go-lucky dog. He has an attitude. He’s a good judge of character, and he’s extremely loyal.
He has also been known to bite the ankles of a few visitors. Rarely does he ever make nice with someone he has deemed a danger to his people. His bite is worse than his bark and not the other way around. Even though he barely weighs ten pounds, he is easily the scariest dog in the house.
He has occasional bursts of energy. He also has occasional outbursts of anger.
Todd doesn’t like to be left alone. He mopes and cries when we leave. Especially if he sees us pack up our suitcases.
But he does like his own space. He’s the happiest when all his people are safe and sound in the house, but when we are all home, he will happily lay on a blanket on the back of the couch. He doesn’t need to be held all the time.
He loves to do his tricks. He can dance, play dead, roll over, army crawl, sit, lay down, jump through a hoop and even play a key on the piano when commanded to do so.
He learns quickly and is always excited to learn a new trick, even though he’s eight years old. I guess that means you can teach an old dog new tricks.
Funny enough, the breeder used the word nuanced when describing him to Jeremy.
Nuanced: having or characterized by subtle and often appealingly complex qualities, aspects, or distinctions.
I’m not saying that Todd and I are exactly alike. But we have some similarities. For example, I don’t run around in circles after I take a bath. I don’t hike my leg when I pee. But I do have strong opinions. I will fight anyone who threatens my family, I like to learn new things, and when I learn them, I want to share them with the people around me. I love for my family to be home with me, but I also appreciate some space sometimes.
Todd isn’t everyone’s cup of tea, and neither am I. But we are consistently who we are, and we don’t let anything or anyone change that.
We live in a field, so we allow the dogs to run free when they go potty. They usually stay within their boundaries and don’t go too far. However, we keep a close eye on them just to be sure.
Todd is smart enough to ring a bell when he needs to go outside. We hear a little “ding, ding,” and we know that he is either hungry, wants water, or needs to go potty. He is very insistent. He lets you know what he’s thinking and doesn’t give up until you listen. I guess some might say that he’s persistent.
Some might say the same about me…
I guess I have decided that I have a story to tell, and people need to hear it. So, here I am, ringing my bell for everyone to hear.
Ding, ding, ding…
Until Next Time,
Whitney