Rita 'the Egg Beater'

We bought a small poodle around 1981, and called her Rita, which quickly expanded to Rita the Egg Beater, or Rita the Meter Maid, depending on our mood. She was a Silver Beige, a reasonably rare colouring, and came to us as a tiny apricot shaded through grey. As she matured, she paled off to a beige with dark tips..... a very attractive little girl. Sadly, we got her very young, at about 5 weeks, from a breeder who didn't care for her babies, and was full of worms, and then Parvovirus.

We had some worrying times as our cute fluffy baby fought for her life, but we won, and once the crisis was over, she thrived and grew into an energetic happy puppy, much loved by her family.

She was so vibrant that her Egg Beater name stuck, and her noisy enthusiasm for EVERYTHING made her well known in the neighborhood. If she needed to go in the car, the yapping was overwhelming, and taking her for a walk was somewhat embarrassing, but she never bit anyone and loved whoever was around at the time.

We had two litters of 6 puppies each from her. The first were multi coloured, which gave hint to her mixed colour parentage, and the second were all a glorious apricot.

She lived to the ripe old age of 16, still having loud opinions about everything, and maintained her beautiful lush coat until the end.

Here's to Rita!


'Happiness is a warm puppy' .... Charles M. Schulz

I love to do pen and wash, and have been meaning to get back in to this medium for a long while. I get a bi-weekly newsletter from Robert Genn from the http://painterskeys.com/ , where he offers his moments of artistic wisdom for we passionate slaves locked away in our studios. Quite often I can get a charge out of his pearls of wisdom. This week, he talks about getting out there and using up your last bit of wet paint, or playing with a new idea and having no attachment to the the result. This way, we can pull something unplanned and good out of that fleeting moment.

Sooo, I practised up with some used paper on the other side, and then started afresh. Rita is the result.

This unframed drawing is for sale @ $35, measures around 6" X 6" on quality 'rough' watercolour paper, in Art Spectrum acrylic ink. Please email robynrinehart@dcsi.net.au for details.