52 Ancestors in 52 Weeks - 2025; Week 30 "Pets"

MY LOVE FOR POODLES:

Even from an early age, I had a great love for poodles.  As a tribute to my most current pet, a beautiful female black poodle, named Chloe, who I just lost a few weeks ago, I decided to write a post on the dogs that I have loved.

Chloe on May 16, 2025 at the age of 14:

As a young child I can remember the first dog we had while growing up in East Detroit, Michigan.  I don't remember where the dog came from or where my parents adopted it from but he was a male cocker spaniel that my brother and I named "Sparkles".  He was strictly an outdoor dog, we had a nice dog house for him and he was happy to be outside.  I can remember one winter when it was horribly cold out that my brother and I begged to bring Sparkles in the house.  My parents relented and that poor dog was petrified in the house, shaking and unhappy.  The following summer, Sparkles was found dead in our backyard.  My father was sure that the horrible neighbor living next door had poisoned him as the neighbor had caused issues with the entire neighborhood.  I remember my father calling the police to pick up Sparkles, which they did.  How he was disposed of, I have no idea.  Unfortunately there is no picture of Sparkles to help me remember him.

In my early teens, my parents surprised my brother and I by bringing home a miniature silver male poodle.  My brother and I were delighted as was my father as he had a great love for dogs as well.  We named the poodle Pierre and called him Pepi. They had bought this poodle from a pet store that I remember was on 8 Mile Road and Dequindre in Detroit.  My parents took Pepi to the vet to have him examined and the diagnosis was that he was a very sick puppy.  Back to the pet store went Pepi with my brother and I begging to keep him.  Pepi was replaced with Pepi #2 from the same pet store and he became a part of our family.  When he was 6 months old he began having seizures which were diagnosed as epilepsy which is an illness affecting dogs that are inbred.  Obviously the pet store was not selling quality dogs.  We did keep Pepi though and his seizures were controlled with Phenobarbitol. We all loved him and he was a great pet for our home until the day when he was 10 years old and he bit my mother on her hand. This caused my father to inform me that I would be taking Pepi to the vet to have him put to sleep because my father was too emotional to do it.

Towards the end of 1967, I decided I wanted a poodle of my own and I went to a pet store at the Oakland Mall in Troy, Michigan where I adopted a beautiful miniature chocolate brown female poodle puppy that I named Coco. Coco had been born on Veterans Day of 1967 and she was the sweetest, most well behaved dog and a loyal companion.  I had her as my career took off and she moved with me to several apartments over the years in the Macomb County area.  I can remember her looking out the window of my 2nd floor bedroom as I would leave for work and when I would return home 9 hours later, she would be looking out the same window.  I always wondered if she stood there all day.  One day, when she was 14, I came home from work to find she had completely shredded her cute dog bed and the bedroom was covered with all the stuffing from her bed.  Evidently she was tired of being alone all day!  I had her the longest of any of my poodles; she lived until April, 1983 when she was 15, and her heart began giving out.  

A close girlfriend recently sent me the following photo of myself, holding her little girl, Holly, with my Coco on my lap.  I honestly do not remember this photo nor do I ever remember taking Coco to another person's house but obviously I did.  

Holly, Cheryl Schulte and Coco in 1977:

In November, 1984, I adopted my next poodle, who had been born on Halloween that year.  She was also a chocolate brown female miniature poodle and I adopted her from a pet store on Gratiot Avenue and 10 1/2 Mile in Roseville, Michigan.  I named this poodle Nicolette and called her Nikki.  She was as equally sweet and loving as Coco had been and she adjusted to my home quickly.  Unfortunately, Nikki also was found to have epilepsy but she did well over the years on Phenobarbitol as well.  She was so smart and agreeable that I could call her and tell her it was time "for your pills" and she would come up to a kitchen chair I would pull out, jump on the chair and let me open her mouth so that I could put the pills down her throat.  My father was a barber and we were even able to groom her ourselves every 2 months without  having to take Nikki to a groomer.  

In 1996, my father passed away and my mother and I moved the next year, across the state, to our hometown of St. Joseph, Michigan where I still live.  My mother sold her house, I moved from my apartment and we brought Nikki with us. Nikki was with us until July 20, 1998, when she was 13 and broke her kneecap when jumping off the couch.  The damage was severe and it was time to say goodbye to Nikki.  She had been a wonderful companion and I missed her terribly.

Nikki with myself, my parents and my niece and nephew in East Detroit, Michigan in 1991:

Nikki and my mother with my niece and nephew in St. Joseph, Michigan in 1998: 

Knowing myself, I could not be without a dog too very long.  Now my mother and I were living in St. Joseph, Michigan and there was a pet store at the Orchards Mall in Benton Harbor.  At that pet store I found a little toy female poodle called a "party poodle" as it was black with a white chest.  The doctor I was working for at the time educated me on the fact that I had a party poodle; I had never heard of such a color before.  I named this poodle, Zoya, and when I found out she had been born on July 20, 1998, the same day my previous Nikki had died, I knew I had to adopt her.  The pet store had to keep her for several weeks due to their policies and every day on my lunch hour I would drive to the pet store and spend some time in a private room with Zoya.  When I was able to bring her home, she added so much enjoyment to our home.  She was the first poodle I crate trained and she was so intelligent that she would take her paw to open her crate when she wanted to go inside to rest.   

There was a photographer who would go periodically to a pet store in St. Joseph and take photos of people's pets.  She did amazing work and here is a photo of Zoya taken one Halloween:

I had Zoya until March, 2011, when she was 12 and she became vicious.  It was so out of character for her and the vet diagnosed her as having a brain tumor.  It was a very sad day when I had to take her to be put to sleep.

I began to research on the Internet poodle breeders in Michigan.  I found one such breeder in Brown City, Michigan across the state from where I live in St. Joseph.  In conversations with this breeder I was informed that she had a chocolate brown miniature mama poodle who was expecting a litter in May, 2011.  She also had the father poodle who was black.  I put down a deposit and waited for the birth.  The breeder told me that the mama had had several litters before and all the puppies were chocolate brown.  In the middle of May the breeder contacted me that the puppies had been born on May 16th, 2011 - 2 black females, 2 black males and 1 chocolate brown male.  I wanted another female and I agreed to adopt one of the black females.  In July of 2011 my mother and I traveled across the state of Michigan to Brown City where I met and adopted my beautiful miniature black female, Chloe.

Here is Chloe with her sister, Gidget.  Chloe is the puppy sitting up:

Ever the genealogist, I had to also get a photo of Chloe with her "birth" parents:

Chloe has been my loyal companion and my shadow all through these years.  She was with me through the end of my career, my retirement, my year long care of my mom and the loss of my mom.  She was with me moving to my current apartment and she was the best and most well behaved dog.  She was well loved by the majority of the 50 neighbors in my senior apartment as she loved people and was always willing to greet them around the building.  At the groomers every 8 weeks she had to greet the various members of the staff and they all loved her.  She had the most velvety feeling black fur and she was very precious to me.

Here are a few professional photos of Chloe over the year at various holidays:

Last month, quite unexpectedly, Chloe developed a large lump on the left side of her face.  A trip to the vet revealed a diagnosis of oral malignant melanoma, a fast growing cancer that spreads rapidly.  I was heartbroken and the vet was very sorry as well.  She had been an extremely healthy dog all of her life and he explained that this was a cancer that frequently affects poodles.  I had to make the very difficult decision not to let Chloe suffer as she was already bleeding from her mouth.  She left me on July 10, 2025 and my home is extremely quiet and lonely.  She was a loyal and much loved companion for all of her 14 years.  I will not forget her.

Chloe's last day at the vet:

copyright 2025, Cheryl J. Schulte