The Life and Times of Payton P Dog Pt1

This will be a series of blog posts. They will tell the story of my poodle Payton. He was my first Big purchase when I moved away from home. I will always miss him.

Part 1 How Payton Got His Name

In the early 90s I moved out of my parents house. Up until then, I had always had pets...often many at once. I missed having a pet badly. At the time, I worked 2 part time jobs, at a local mall. On my breaks, I would walk around and browse in the other shops. Back then there were pet shops in the mall and it was one of my favorite stops.

One day, I stopped in and they had gotten in several new dogs. There was a big kennel section holding about 6-7 standard Poodle pups and one Runt looking one. I asked about the small one and was told he was the only toy they got in. Ended up playing with him my entire break. Over the next week I went back every time I had a shift and he was still there.

Since I worked not 1 but 2 jobs at the mall, it is obvious I did not make a great deal of money..but I was completely smitten. At the end of the week of my visiting, the store manager asked me Why I did not just buy him. I explained that $475 (a bit of $$ back then)was just not an amount of money I had to spare. I do not know if it was the manager Really wanting to sell the dog or that he felt bad for me, but he struck a deal and let me make payments on him.

YUP I was probably the only person to ever get a dog via Layaway. I gave the store manager money out of every paycheck for serveral more weeks and even took My Dog a couple toys...giggle.

I finally got him paid off and was... Yay... allowed to take him home. Well... I shared my place with my buddy from high school and I had not Actually Told her I was getting a Pet....let alone one that cost so much that I had to make payments. SOO I took my puppy home in the kennel I got him and waited for Cindy to come home, so I could tell her what I had done.

When I showed her this small dog and explained the payment bits and all...she took him and put him in our smallest sauce pan and exclaimed... "Look at him..Not even big enough to Eat if we are starving...."

Of course she ended up loving him too...despite his thinking everytime she laid in the floor that her pony tail was a dog toy, to tug on.

I still needed to Name him and just could not decide on one and then it hit me ...I Did Pay a Ton for him...so he was Dubbed Payton P Dog. (P after my last name since he was my baby).

Payton was great from the start. He was house broken in a day and learned to sit, lay down and roll over. Oh and fetch..but letting Go of that toy was never his strong suit. He also Loved riding in the car but those are other stories.