Bijou Girl, And How She Changed Our Life

by Zann and Jeff
(Davis, California)

Bijou and "friend" at the park!

Adopting a Standard Poodle was the best thing we ever did! We loved her so much; she was such a good girl!

I had wanted a Standard Poodle for years, having heard about what great pets they made. My husband is slightly dog allergic, so it was also a good choice for him. In my internet research, I made friends with a poodle fancier in Southern California. One day she sent us an email about a female apricot Standard who needed a good home. (Norcal Poodle Rescue knew about her, but we went directly through Bijou's breeder, who was responsible for finding a home for all of her dogs for their whole life).

We went to San Jose and picked up Bijou - her human mom was very ill, and her human dad had died a year ago of Leukemia. She had gone through a lot of loss for a 3 and 1/2 year old girl! We kept Bijou's name, to lessen any trauma a name change might cause.

She adapted easily to our household - we were just two people with no other pets, like her old owners.

She loved to chase the tennis ball above all else, and loved chasing rabbits and flushing ducks! We took her everywhere with us. Our whole neighborhood knew her name. We were now Standard Poodle owners for life.

She did have some issues; she was somewhat fearful, and she needed some time to get used to new people coming in the house. She ended up loving it when people came over, eventually.

Unfortunately, she had a steadily worsening mitral valve leak in her heart, and was not a good candidate for the very expensive surgery...we kept her quality of life quite high for 9 months after her diagnosis.

Every penny we spent was worth it! We had five wonderful years with our Bijou girl. We now have a new Standard in our lives, but it all started with Bijou.