When we moved back to Oregon from Idaho, I had fallen in love with poodles.  We had been given a lovely little toy poodle who had a lot of faults physically but was one of the smartest dogs I had seen. She walked into our house and looked at my large GSD dogs....they let her boss them around, took first choices of their food, slept on them.  She climbed trees, herded escaped rabbits and pheasants that we raised for the fish and game department in Oregon, nursed two orphan kittens and was a wonderful companion.  I bought a black standard female...Charca was the start.  I showed her in conformation and in obedience.  Looking for help with grooming, I went to a show and talked to a lady showing a red Mini.  Janet Blannin agreed to help me with grooming.  She was beginning a breeding program to have quality red standards.  The mini she was showing that day was Palmares E Pluribus Unum.  Rusty was the start of her program.  She used him on her apricot standard girls.  She had a male from La Croix kennels.  She bred to dogs owned by Ilse Konig at Shangri-la. She bred to dogs from Majestic.  She let me breed my Charca to Ponceau.  She helped me with the steep learning curve of going from GSD's to poodles.  Over the years we traveled to shows together, bred dogs together and enjoyed the Blannin family as an addition to our family.   As Janet got older she started showing Chihuahuas and Chinese Cresteds. Janet's oldest son lived with her in Oregon for a while and then he moved back to Texas and took Janet with him since she needed every day care.