for those who don't know it...here is cuddles story

he came to saints when he was 15. he was "rescued" by a woman who said his original owner had died and the people who had him next "abused" him...i put those 2 words in quotations because that is what i was told..i do not know if my perception would have been the same or not because i did not know cuddles nor the life he had.

anyway, the woman who rescued him was having problems with him...incontinence, anxiety, constant barking and whining, an over all neediness that just was not working well for someone who lived in an apartment and had to go to work every day.

so cuddles came to saints..initially he was not a happy camper and i thought he was not only kind of homely for a poodle (he was very thin with very long legs and sparse curly hair)...but i thought he was a little bit boring too...he just laid curled up in a ball and looked really pathetic and sad.

that lasted for about a week when he suddenly discovered my bed was way more comfortable than the couch in the back room. as soon as he hit the bed, he got back his power and he and general albert spice began guarding the gate to the back bedrooms at night.

i don't know if any of you remember the story i wrote a long time ago about those two wanna-be gate guarders tormenting poor maude who just wanted to come to bed...it was funny...ok i thought it was funny...maude thought it totally sucked.

anyway...cuddles grew on me..he grew into me til that little dog had his paws wrapped around my heart. and somehow he became beautiful...he was like a super model...it did not matter what we dressed him up in, he looked totally and completely hot!

i never forgave myself when clyde went after him that day...cuddles was hurt and i took clyde's life because i left them alone together one day. and if i did not already love cuddles enough, that guilt for both of them made me forever his slave.

cuddles was a dog with a job...his job was as necessary to him as a trained herding dog's job is necesssary to him. he had to be "the perfect companion" and he worked hard at it every single minute of every single day. loyalty was not just a word to him, it was in every cell that he had and it breathed life into his veins.

at seventeen years old, that dog could and would keep up with every step that i took..where ever i was, he was...it was just how he was made.

i don't think i have ever been as well cared for by any creature, human or animal, as i was by that little dog.

when kathy mentioned that she loved him and wished she could take him home..my heart dropped. i think everyone here thought that i would never let him go. but two things i knew..i knew that kathy would love him as much as me...and i knew cuddles would love her back again, and more than he loved me.

cuddles loved me by necessity...it did not make his love less valuable..but it was the reality...i may be hugely lovable for these dogs but as laura said..they have to share me with everyone and everything here and i am the only one for them to love every day....for a dog like cuddles...it wasn't really fair.

i always hated his name....but i never changed it because he was cuddles thru and thru. kathy and dave didn't like his name either and asked me if they could change it...i said sure...but they never did...because cuddles was cuddles.

from the time that kathy took him home...cuddles was in heaven...he finally had a real home and a real family and he had the best there ever was of both.

i know that i did right by him..i gave him a person to be loved until he found a home with the people he loved even more.

but i have missed him taking care of me since the day that he left....my consolation was not only was he taking care of kathy's happiness, but she was taking care of his too.

i am truly glad they found each other...god is good.

(here is the story i wrote back in march 2008)

SAINTS Live Theatre
Filed under: Uncategorized — Carol @ 12:48 pm Edit This
Setting the stage:

midnight…Maudie asleep in the laundry area oblivious to the closing of the gate. The characters will speak in human voices so you can actually understand them.
The Gate

2am all is quiet but the watchers are watching.

Suddenly an intruder is detected at the gate to the sleeping areas of the priviledged. Sir Cuddles springs into action, leaping from the bed and sounding the alarm. General Albert Spice joins him and together they hold off the intruder.

“GET BACK YOU BEAST” shouts Sir Cuddles to the frantic and gate climbing husky.

“The Gate is closed, go away” orders the general in a tone that brooks no argument.

“please, please….” begs Maudie, “please let me in, I need to be in there, please open the gate!”

“NO!” they both scream “THE GATE IS CLOSED! YOU CANNOT COME IN!”

Maudie loses her mind, and despite the two mean and unfeeling poodles, she starts to climb the gate.

” Send reinforcements! the bitch is scaling the gate!!!”

Suddenly out of the darkness appears Squirt (who apparently is sometimes brave) and he joins the other two in holding off the intruder.

The battle is fierce, the little trio stand their ground, refusing to give an inch.

Finally Maude sinks to the ground in defeat, still on the wrong side of the gate.

She begins to sob, “oh…will no one help me, will no one let me in???”

And in the darkness, a figure appears in a very ugly bathrobe. The tiny army respectfully gives way, the gate swings open and Maude dashes past to her bed, finally safe at last.

As the silence once again falls and peace reigns again the poodles grumble to themselves…”she woke HER up again, that’s why we lost”…”yes, but did you see how brave was the little Squirt?"