Audrey

 Today my world is duller as the light of my life, Audrey, has left it. Audrey was born here and was reserved to go to a show home at a few weeks old. As the time for her to leave drew nearer I had more and more regrets about letting her go, she had something about her that I still can't put my finger on. Fate then played her hand and the buyer let me down, I was so pleased and reregistered her with the Kennel Club as Itzapromise Meant to Be, and she really was. This is her with her mum, Rhonda. 

Audrey was one of the soundest poodles I have ever had the pleasure of knowing, nothing phased her and she completely debunked the thinking of apricots/reds being harder to live with. She was just a joy to live with, you could take her anywhere and know that she would fit right in.  We enjoyed doing basic obedience together and also dabbled in the sport of agility. Everything she did she did with joie de vivre, in fact in almost every photo I have of her you can see her smiling. 

Audrey was also a great mum, she had 4 litters in her lifetime and has made many people very happy. Unfortunately neither of the pups I kept, Eliza and Tiffany, proved suitable for breeding so my apricot line has finished, but both are great dogs to live with and have inherited their mums joyful spirit. Here she is with some of her own pups and some of Dollars

This may lead you to think she was perfect in every way, this was not the case, over the years Audrey became infamous for her deer hunting expeditions!! She was like a ninja, one minute she was there, the next she was gone. She didn't need to see them, she would scent them out and then track them, and once she was gone she really was gone, her average jaunts would last 2-3hrs but her record was 10hrs (when she came home with well over 1000 newly hatched ticks on her). I'm afraid to say I know she is responsible for bringing down at least 3 good sized deer, not something you would ever suspect her of to look at her. She is single handedly responsible for every grey hair on my head. Many people said she should never be allowed off the lead, if I were to do this I may as well have euthanised her straight away as she lived for her walks, and if we could avoid deer tracks, or I caught her disappearing, she had a recall 2nd to none. Many walks became no go areas for Audrey, but we worked round it and found locations that were almost deer free where she could run free without putting my stress levels through the roof. Fortunately, unlike Dime, her hunting was limited to deer, sheep held no interest to her and small furries were not worth her time, she was a specialist :) This was typical of Audrey 'walking with us' always kept her eye on me but always from a distance (though always came if called)

Over the last few months Audrey developed a respiratory problem, despite much veterinary investigation and treatment we were unable to stop its relentless progress and today I made the decision to let my soul mate go before she started to really suffer. I feel like my heart has been ripped in two, I know you're not meant to have favourites, but I did and she was mine. She was always my girl and I don't know how I am going to get through the next few weeks. RIP special girl, there will never be another quite like you xx