Hi everyone! I thought I'd introduce myself -- I'm JP's new mascot, muse, and special little buddy. My foster mom at the rescue organization called me Kahlua, but when we're adopted we get new names, and JP has decided to name me Cocoa! I'm not living in the Holding house yet -- that will happen Feb. 1 when he takes me home. But he'll be visiting me at my foster mom's house and buying me all kinds of toys and food to make me feel at home!

As it turns out, I'm a LOT like JP's last buddy Toby. Here's some of the details:

* I'm poodle with maybe some terrier mixed in. They're not sure.
* I'm only 2 and a half years old!
* I was found wandering around town near the animal shelther and I was in very bad shape. You can see a picture they took of me below. I was emaciated and my fur was a real mess! It was so bad that it hurt to be groomed. Because of this, I am still scared of being professionally groomed and may even need a muzzle for a while at the groomers, but I get more used to it each time I go.
* I weigh 11 pounds.
* I am a quiet boy and very smart, maybe as smart as Toby was! I already know a lot of words.
* Unlike Toby, I do like other dogs, but I tend to ignore new people at first.
* Unlike Toby, I love toys! My favorite toys squeak and are bright yellow or red, like the one you see me sitting with in the picture below.

You can ask me more questions if you want to! I'll be here all day!

Very cool!

Are you going to bring him should you come to Charlotte? I still think that maybe he can track down those two guys who asked you to review Zeitgeist from here.

I'd guess, judging by the dilute color and the coat cording, that Cocoa is all poodle. Cute dog.

Here you go, JPH, a chocolate poodle pic. See the marked similarity?

The proportions are a little different because you've got a minature there. It's the mid-size, between the toy and the standard. The tail is long because whoever bred it didn't dock it, so I'm guessing it's someone with pets that thought a litter would be nice but didn't like what a vet charges to do that or didn't know that you do the dock at 2-3 days, not wait for the new owner to take care of that.

The conformation on your dog is pretty good. (ex dog breeder and showed dogs, though not poodles) That's one reason I don't think you've got a mutt. The coat is typical poodle, with a tendency to mat. The chocolate color is a giveaway. It's not common to find that color in mutts out crossed to terriers because most commonly kept terriers don't carry the dilute genes.

Originally posted by ApologiaPhoenix

Are you going to bring him should you come to Charlotte? I still think that maybe he can track down those two guys who asked you to review Zeitgeist from here.

I can already smell you from here.

From JP:

Originally posted by Crow

Here you go, JPH, a chocolate poodle pic. See the marked similarity?

The proportions are a little different because you've got a minature there. It's the mid-size, between the toy and the standard.

From what I'm learning, Toby was mini in his poodle aspect after all -- not toy as I thought. Cocoa is the same height.

That's one reason I don't think you've got a mutt. The coat is typical poodle, with a tendency to mat. The chocolate color is a giveaway. It's not common to find that color in mutts out crossed to
terriers because most commonly kept terriers don't carry the dilute genes.

I'll share that with the foster mom.

Congrats on the new dog, eh?

Congrats! He's so cute.

Cool JP! ANd Crow has prolly judged a few AKC competitions, with her bredth of knowledge on the subject...

Congratumalationisms! He's cute.

Welcome to the fold Cocoa

Nice, JP! Welcome to the new addition -- he'll be typing responses to LGM and Jimbo in no time at all!

The (since you can't have any more sockpuppets than us on TWeb, you should sign him up on TBT's blog) Curtmudgeon

Hi cocao, this is Lizard's (formerly Faramir's) Bulldog Precious. Welcome to the TWeb family.

Originally posted by Bill the Cat

Cool JP! ANd Crow has prolly judged a few AKC competitions, with her bredth of knowledge on the subject...

Never judged AKC. I've been an assistant judge at IFSB shows. I was into American Foxhounds. But I've been to plenty of AKC shows and known some folks who bred poodles and seen enough of their stock to know if that dog has anything other than poodle in him, it's darn little.

His feet are shaped correctly for a poodle. His muzzle, forehead, ears, and body and legs are correct for a poodle. He has a characteristic that is found on the poodle and not on that many other dogs, the tendency for the hair to "marcell", or make tight little waves where it is short. His growing coat traps shed hair--all long coated dogs do this to some extent, but very few do it to the extent shown in that original photo--a poodle trait. And most of those other breeds that do it are uncommon in the US. None comes in the liver or chocolate dilute.

If you take that dog and clip him once he's grown in, you can get a poodle cut out of him except for the tail. Because a poodle has such long and heavy hair on it's tail, with that length of tail I'd suggest that you have a groomer rat tail him if you have him done in a poodle cut. It will look different, but it will be much better for the dog.

Awwww... Cocoa's cute.