 Saturday, November 21, 2009
The Garden's Green
Palm Desert, California
Story and photos by Janet Walker
Da Vinci was there. Zeus was there with his girlfriend Jolie. Elvira, Merlin and Punky showed up too, just to add some variety. No, we’re not talking about the Mistress of the Dark or the artist who painted the Mona Lisa or even the King of the Gods. What we’re talking about are the canine members of the Standard Poodle Club of the Desert near Palm Springs, Calif.
The humans who started this organization, Meg Doolittle and Donna Jiaras, are a couple of energetic go-getters, bringing together more than 200 owners of standard poodles who use their association to socialize and share ideas about spreading the love of poodles and supporting the humane treatment of all animals.
The Saturday, Nov. 21 gathering was sponsored by Saks Fifth Avenue and held at The Garden’s Green in front of the store as a benefit for Animal Samaritans of Thousand Palms. The goal was to raise $5,000 to underwrite a “poodle club” kennel at the new Animal Samaritans Vet Clinic, set to open in the spring of 2010. Animal Samaritans is a nonprofit organization founded in 1978 and is committed to improving the lives of animals and people. They are the Coachella Valley’s most comprehensive animal welfare organization, and their goal is to one day eliminate the needless suffering and abuse of homeless and unwanted animals.
 Many of the poodles at the event wore a blue jacket, marking them as therapy dogs. Sherry Halstead, close friend of Elvira and Mervin, explained that the dogs are invaluable as providers of affection and joy to those who live in eldercare facilities and special-needs children.
“Their eyes light up when they see our dogs, there’s just a connection,” she remarked.
 Unaware of all this, Elvira, a gorgeous coquette with a black coat, could not help showing off her new “do” that had to be the envy of all the other poodles at the bash. None of the other dogs even came close to her serious use of hairspray. Katie, a lovely slip of a thing, tried hard, very hard, to mind her manners for her owner, but the excitement of seeing all of the other dogs was obviously testing her resolve. She looked longingly at the refreshment table, loaded with the goodies so generously prepared by Saks and SuperMutts of El Paseo, especially at the transparent packages of festively wrapped dog biscuits. All the female dogs there most definitely saw Zeus as the Brad Pitt of Poodledom.
There were a couple of characters named Oscar and Felix who deemed themselves to be above the raucous mingling, and chose to lie in elegant repose at the feet of their master. I could tell that they thought Zeus was a big show-off. Or was that jealousy? Hmm, I can only wonder.
For more about Animal Samaritans, click here.
For more about Saks Fifth Avenue, click here.
For more about SuperMutts of El Paseo, click here.
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