Merlot and my sister Lisa had an interesting relationship. Lisa was special for many reasons. First and foremost, Lisa is my sister and the person we stay with most often when we visit family in Arkansas, and she always kept the dogs if we went away on vacation. She has the largest house, and the right set up for dogs, not to mention having 3 Standard Poodles of her own. It is a very dog friendly environment with gates blocking ‘non doggy areas’ and tile in ‘doggy areas’. The hassle and fuss of being in someone else’s home is decreased substantially. Secondary to this would be the fact that in Merlot’s mind Lisa was our hero. Yes, it is a strange statement, but there is a reason for him to view her in this manner. For the first 3 years of his life, we lived in Huntsville, AL a 6 hour drive from Arkansas. On several occasions my car had ‘issues’ which left me broke down in the Memphis area. Lisa had a reliable car and would always be the one to come ‘rescue’ us from in impending doom… at least in the mind of my over protective and always worried poodle boy!  It was so funny to watch his face when Lisa would show up, sheer joy and relief that help had arrived!!  In almost every situation where Merlot felt something was serious, Lisa would save the day.  Not daddy, but LISA!  I think this might be why he held her in such great esteem.

Not that he took life seriously all the time.  He enjoyed wallowing on Lisa, smiling at her, pushing his head into her side, sprawled out on her king size bed while we all watched TV in the evenings.  Her dogs always gave way to him as the dominant dog and we humans kept the peace and didn’t allow ‘bed guarding’ to occur.  He was the eldest and grumpiest and no one else really wanted to BE the boss, so when he was around the pack order shifted.  Merlot taking over the bed at Lisa’s house was expected, not questioned.

At Lisa’s house when a big crowd comes in, we generally eat on paper plates.  One morning during a visit, we had just finished off a great southern breakfast of biscuits, gravy, eggs, and bacon.  Merlot LOVED people food and knew if paper plates were being used, it was highly likely the dogs would be allowed to lick the plates!  Merlot also knew I often reward him for picking things up for me.  If he would pick up my pen, I would often give me a small treat for the time invested.  Sure enough, the plates started hitting the ground, a swarm of poodles descend.  Much licking ensued.  Once all the plates were clean, Merlot came over to me with a plate in his mouth, eyes bright, tail wagging.  I could see him saying “Hey, there’s still food on the table.  You want to trade this plate for a small snack??”  He was just so darn cute I take the plate and give him a bite of bacon.  The next thing I notice is him pouncing, yes pouncing on the next plate with GREAT joy, sliding the plate across the floor in the process.  The very interesting thing was that he did not take it to me.  Oh no, he takes that plate to Lisa.  She takes the plate, looks at me, gives him a bite, and away he goes for the next plate.  This time he picks up a plate and takes it to Chris, Lisa’s son.  We are all looking at each other now.  What is he doing?  Then I figure it out!  He is returning each person’s plate to THEM!  No, he isn’t just picking them up and taking them all to me, he is using his nose, deciding who ate off the plate, and returning it to the original person.  8 plates later, the dog has pretty much finished off the remaining bacon and everyone in the room is chatting about the way his mind works.

Merlot loved to joke around.  Once while Lisa and I were sitting at the kitchen table talking, Merlot comes in and crawls up in Lisa’s lap.  He is wallowing on her, rubbing his head all over her chest, smiling, enjoying some much needed attention from his most favorite Aunt!  During all this wallowing he knocks a pen off the table.  Lisa is about to reach down and get it and I say “Oh no, you make Merlot pick that up, he knocked it off.”  Merlot is listening to this, he glanced at the pen and continues to smile at Lisa asking her to no stop the wonderful petting.  She looks at Merlot and says “Merlot, take it” and points at the pen.  “Take it” is his trained command, but Merlot keeps right on smiling and pushes his face into her chest, tail wagging.  I tell her she needs to ask him again.  He again ignores her, entire body smiling.  I then say “Merlot, you pick that up!”.  He looks at me with a BIG grin, snorts, hops down, picks up the pen, hands the pen to Lisa, and jumps his front half back into her lap for more petting.  He knew just how far to push it before taking the game to far.  He knew he could ignore Lisa’s request but best not to ignore mommy or the game would end.  He was the king of cute and got away with so much because of it.  He used his human like smile to melt many a heart over the years.

We all miss him so much, my sweet, manipulative big poodle boy!