Introducing Mocha
Meet Mocha
This is where it all started. Before the program… before the knowledge… before the vision.. there was her.
Mocha was my first poodle.
And if I’m being honest, I didn’t get her from a very kind breeder..
There was no transparency.
No real guidance.
She was just a sale.
And I didn’t know any better.. yet.
When I brought her home, I realized things weren’t right. She had a large cyst on her back that I was never told about, So I did what I thought was right at the time… I had it removed. But what I didn’t know then…
That cyst was actually allowing her body to release toxins from trauma she had already been through.
And when it was removed…
it closed that outlet.
Everything got trapped inside.
Two weeks later, she crashed.
Lethargic.
Couldn’t walk.
Completely not herself.
I rushed her in, and it only got worse from there.
They opened her up expecting one thing…
and found her spleen was 5x the size it should’ve been. (pictures below, view at your own discretion)
At that point, they were preparing me for cancer.
But when the results came back…
it said something I’ll never forget, “Blunt force spleen trauma.”
She had been holding all of that inside her…
and when that cyst was removed, it nearly cost her everything. She was on the edge of becoming septic. And from that moment on… she was mine in a different way.
Not just my dog..
My responsibility.
My heart.
My reason.
I poured everything into her recovery… and she gave it right back to me.
She trusted me. She chose me.
And I became her safe place. Because when she first came to me… She had no trust.
She would drop to her belly and pee on herself.
Completely shut down.
And watching her go from that…
to the biggest diva… the biggest lover… the most confident girl, That’s something I’ll never be able to fully explain.
Dogs give in a way I don’t think we ever could.
They trust in a way most people could never.
And she gave me that.
So when it came time to talk about breeding…
it was never about “just having puppies.” We wanted to make sure it was safe for her, because she deserved that. But we also wanted something more…
We wanted a piece of her to continue on this journey with us.
A few months later, after healing and getting her strength back, we talked with the vet and made that decision. Around that same time, I took in a neglected litter from the same breeder, and Mocha stepped in like she was meant for it.
She loved those puppies.
And I knew… if she was able… I wanted her to have that experience for herself. I didn’t know everything back then. I didn’t understand genetics the way I do now.
But I took a chance.
Her first breeding didn’t take…
but the next one? That’s when everything changed.
I found Zeke, my first true male, and I fell in love with him instantly.
I paired the two of them together, And they gave me the most beautiful litter I had ever seen.
My first standard poodle litter.
The beginning of everything you see today.
Mocha gave me two incredible litters…
but more than that, She gave me perspective. She showed me what happens when dogs aren’t valued.
She’s the reason I do things differently.
She’s the reason transparency matters to me.
She’s the reason I will never cut corners.
Every dog here has a story.
And I don’t hide that, I share it. Because dogs like her deserve to be known for more than what they produce.
Now?
She’s retired.
Spoiled.
Living her best life as a full-time couch potato… exactly how she deserves it.
Mocha isn’t just part of my journey.
She is the foundation of it.
