160 OUR HOME PETS 



not forget a kindness, even to please those he 

 loved enough to seek under so great difficul- 

 ties. 



While the collie is good in doors and out, 

 as a parlor pet or a general care-taker on a 

 farm, the poodle is fit only for the house. One 

 can hardly imagine one of these shaven and 

 shorn artificial products of fashion living out- 

 of-doors with other dogs. As regards the 

 beauty of the poodle, there is room for a wide 

 difference of opinion. One who thinks that 

 Nature knows how to form and decorate her 

 dogs will not admire the elaborate shaving in 

 patterns, after diagrams laid down in a book, 

 the "bracelets" standing out like a stiff 

 clothes-brush, the broornlike feet, the musta- 

 chios, and other grotesque ornaments of the 

 fashionable poodle. Happily he's a sunny- 

 tempered fellow, and submits to the caprices 

 of fashion with a better grace than many dogs 

 would. He is one of the most intelligent of 

 the race, the chosen trick dog, and more ready 

 to learn than any other. He is also a remark- 

 able swimmer and keen of scent, but full of 

 mischief and pranks. 



Three kinds of poodles are familiar to us in 



