We rescued Carlata about 3 years ago when she was around 9 years old.
I have never seen a dog depressed before. She had had the same owner all her life and within a year of her owner being put into a home due to age she had just found herself at our place and her second home in a very short time span. I was told that if we didn't work out for her then Purebred Dog Rescue was going to put her on "Dogie Downers".
Let's just say that it took a year for her to adjust (which is normal for most dogs). Since Standard Poodles are known for how smart they are we were very surprised to find she wasn't. At least that's what we thought. It dawned on me one day that she was raised in Mexico and that she must not understand us. I called my mother to ask how to say sit in Spanish, you know, a test to see if she understood Spanish. We were very overjoyed to find out that, yes, our dog spoke another language. She really was smart, she just had to learn English!
I had a stranger ask me about her and she had some very insightful words. She said that "Carlata's music had changed and that it must be very hard to adjust to another song". That has helped Trent and I understand what she needed from us. Lot's of love and patience.
What we loved most about her was her connection to Caden. Right from the beginning she mothered him. Whenever he would walk into a room she would come up to him from where ever she was to get a hug.
That's why we were so sad when we found out her kidneys failed and we had to put her down the same day.
This is our goodbye to a very sweet dog. You will be missed.
