Wearing the Wrong Coat

A lovely couple came into my gallery, Las Olas Fine Arts, a couple nights ago with the greatest looking dog. I thought at first it was a young Wolfhound, but that wasn't quite right, I knew. The woman sat on the leather sofa at the front of the gallery and the dog flopped sweetly at her feet. The concrete floor in here is not easy to get a footing on, and the dog slipped into a nice lay-down, chin between its giant puppy paws. She had a wiry yellow coat and a short-haired face with soulful brown labrador eyes. Her pink rhinestone-studded collar, usually a small dog accessory, was a nice touch on her thick neck.

The woman told me that the dog - 8 months old - was a labradoodle, and had been abandoned by the puppymill breeder because she had the wrong texture coat, giving her an odd and markedly non-designer dog appearance. They had rescued her three months ago.

They also had issues with food aggression, because the puppy had been fed communally at first and then neglected and underfed. The woman told me that it took about two months to get past the growling over food.

Her husband laughed. Now, he said, the only problem was the pool. The dog was asserting ownership and everyone had to request permission to take a swim.

Retirement to Florida will spoil you.