Whew, X was a tough one, and I was scrambling a bit, until my mom said "what about Xander"! Well there it was. This is Xander, our overly confident 18 pound farm poodle. We work closely with a wonderful rescue organization at work and he was evacuated from a puppy mill. At 10 weeks old B did heart surgery on him to close a hole in his heart and from that time on, he was ours. He has always been full of energy, and like many smaller breed dogs, thinks that he is three times his size! He never shies away from keeping the livestock in line or running the fences on patrol :)
Several years ago Xander was also diagnosed with Addison's Disease, which in a nutshell, is adrenal gland failure, is little body cannot keep up with cortisol production so he does not deal well with stressful situations. He is managed well on medication and for the most part, certainly does not let anything slow him down. In our household, he bosses around Emerson, our boarder collie, but is pudding in the hands of our five pound kitten, Juno. They wrestle like they are both canines, and many a time Juno comes out on top! I took this picture last weekend he was covered in dry leaves and dust from patrolling under the porch. He was just out and about in the sunshine watching over the homestead, as any farm poodle would do.
