Pink poodle flouts the law in Boulder

"It is faded, isn't it?" sighed Joy Douglas, owner of Zing Salon, running her fingers through her toy poodle Cici's tight, once-pink curls.

Nearly a month has passed since Cici has had her bimonthly treatment of pureed organic beets and egg whites massaged into her white coat while she basks under a heat lamp.

With her coat dyed pink -- sometimes a bubble-gum pink, other times a vivid magenta -- Cici is a wriggling 10-pound advertisement for breast cancer awareness, Douglas said, an issue dear to her heart.

But to the Humane Society of Boulder Valley, the pastel-hued, rhinestone-collar-wearing Cici is the embodiment of a law flouted.

As do a number of other communities, Boulder has an ordinance forbidding the dyeing or coloring of rabbits, fowl or other animals. The nearly 30-year-old law was passed to prevent Easter-time trade in baby rabbits, chicks and ducks colored with dyes, which were often harmful, and which encouraged buyers to get rid of the creatures when their cuteness had worn off.

Douglas -- who faces a $1,000 fine and 90 days in jail -- takes umbrage at the idea that she is hurting her dog. "I've never treated my animals poorly," she said.

The attention has its benefits, Douglas said. Soon after the story broke, she said, one man walked in and handed her $40 for a breast cancer fund; her donation jar now boasts $157. "Not too shabby for two weeks," she said.

Another donor gave Douglas a hot-pink pet stroller. Cici spends her days lolling in it, chewing on a hair clip and yipping in warning when another of Douglas' dogs, Pierre the Yorkie, tries to join her.

Now Douglas is trying to parlay her next court date into a fundraiser. For every person who shows up at the courthouse in pink April 7, she said, she'll donate $1 to the Susan G. Komen Breast Cancer Foundation.

More prevalent in the 1970s and 1980s, the trend of coloring animals has fallen out of fashion as people have grown aware of harm caused to the animals, said Michael Markarian, executive vice president of the Humane Society of the United States.

Cici is not the first dog Douglas, 33, has colored; she tinted her previous white poodle, Lulu. When she bought Cici about a year ago, Douglas continued the practice, using a concoction of pureed organic beets, mixed with Kool-Aid and egg whites. "It comes out a nice hot pink," Douglas said.