Notes from the desk of Wolfgang I am writing this addendum to the information that one of the lower two-legged members of my pack put in my web page about me. My beloved two-legger made me out to be a prissy poodle; the truth is that I have had many adventures and misadventures over the last 11 years. First, there is not one word on my record for the number of times I prowled with the alpha of the pack. In the last 11 years, we have gone growling and prowling over 8,100 times. As I said we had both adventures and misadventures, well because my propose is to dispel the goodie four paws image, I will tell you a story of saving my alpha's life. It happened while on a walk in our favorite park when I was just a year old. We were on the first walk of the day, which we do before the break of dawn. The weather was perfect for a walk for me, there was snow on the ground, which came up about five paws high on my leg, and it was still snowing, and cold. Well when it snowed, my alpha wore great big paw-covers for our walks, but they don’t help him keep up with me in snow (my alpha is slowed down by the snow). Therefore, by the time we made it to the park, this poodle pup was so pumped up that as soon as we reached the place he normally lets me off the leash my heart raced with excitement. As he bent down and unhooked the leash, I started running - the snow flew as I plowed it with my nose. I would normally run down our walking path till I was way out in front, then stop, and look back to see what my alpha was doing, then sniff around until my two legger had walked about half way to where I was. I would then run further ahead and stop and repeat the process. My alpha has a number of ways he signals me to come back, he can howl, or as two-leggers call it, yell for me. Or he can kneel down, and make a sound from a metal thing he carried to pick up my droppings. Coming back to my alpha is when he made that sound is something that I learned meant, come back. It did not matter which way my two legger signaled to me; I would always run back to him, because of love and loyalty, not to mention liver treats. Only this morning was going to be different, I was running just to be running. As I ran and played, I heard the sound of geese coming from the lake in the southwest end of the park. I changed direction and headed as fast as I could to the honk of the geese. I have often contemplated why geese and ducks are my two most desired things in my life. Ducks and geese hold a special place in my mental want to chase list. Getting back to my story, I ran as fast as I could towards the sounds, of course as soon as the geese saw me coming they took off in flight. I ran onto the lake pursuing geese when I was completely surprised, the thick ice on the lake had run out and I was on thin ice, which collapsed under my weight. So there I was, my rear half in the lake and my top half sticking up through the hole in the ice I had made when the ice gave way, with my claws dug deep in the ice, I tried several times to pull myself up out of the water, but I could not. It was then that I remembered my alpha, I had no idea where he might be in the park. I turned to howling as loud as I could, I don’t have any idea how long I kept up the regular howling, but at some point I started to let out a sound that that was not a howl, but my death song. I was not going to get out of this lake breathing. As I was singing my death song I heard my name, I looked over to the right, and there was my alpha, I was so happy to see him, there are no words to express my joy. As I watched him, he seemed undecided as what to do. I took a quick look around, it seemed that in my blind run after geese, I had ran out onto a circle of ice that jutted out into the lake. The ice was thick around the out side but weak in the middle, where I was. This meant my alpha two-legger could not walk out on the ice to save me. Looking back to my alpha, I could see that there was open water from the bank for about three lengths of my alpha's height, then the ice started, from that point to my hole was about the same distance. Besides being in a hard place for my two-legger to help me, my butt was freezing, and I was getting tired holding myself out of the water. Although your ideas about time is impossible to understand, I heard my alpha say later that I had been in the water 15 minutes. I looked back at my alpha, he was as you two-leggers say, taking off his clothes, not all, just his heavy coat, paw covers and sweater. He then sat down on the bank, slid into the water and started towards me. At first, he moved with ease, but then he reached the ice. He tried to use his arms and hands like a sledgehammer, but the ice was thick and did not break. My two-legger Alpha looked rattled, like at home when something is not going his way. Still watching him, as I tried my hardest to keep from slipping through the hole in the ice. I watched him sink into the muck filled lake right to his pink nose, only to come leaping out of the water onto the ice, landing with the full force of his body, he shattered the ice. Two more times he leaped out of the water, coming down hard each time smashing though the ice. On his last leap out of the water, he came down very close to me. The next thing I am doing is swimming, saving my alpha as he hung on to my collar. When we got to the mud bank, I pushed my two-legged alpha out of the water and up on the bank; I followed him quickly and waited till he put on his covers. After my alpha finished putting his covers back on, we walked to an apartment complex that was right next door to the park. We asked the first person we saw for help, and luckily a woman who was on her way to work, stopped. My alpha gave this wonderful woman our home phone number, and she went back to her apartment and called the other two-legged pack member to come and get us. At home the third and lower member of our pack took me right into a warm bath, boy did it feel good. I was warmed, dried with her hair dryer and brushed, I munched liver treats, some peanut butter biscuits, and a few mouthfuls of dog food, and then off to my favorite den for a well deserved nap. A lot of what I have written comes from information I over heard, from my alpha telling his friends about our cold morning. Wolfgang My alpha tells this story with love and affection
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