The Chihuahua

"I hope if dogs take over the world, and they choose a king, they don't just go by size, because I bet there are some Chihuahuas with good ideas." - Jack Handy

"Even the tiniest poodle or Chihuahua is still a wolf at heart." - Dorothy Hinshaw Patent

I had my definite opinions about Chihuahuas once upon a time.  They were mostly formed when I stayed at an old friend's house and she had one who liked to bark-bark-bark-bark at everything and anything.  It was annoying as hell, honestly.  Why, I figured, would anyone want to have one of those little noise machines?

Somehow I had it in my head that every Chihuahua was like the one I'd met.

It's funny; I used to assume a lot of things.  I've gotten a little older, though, and most of my earlier assumptions have been proven wrong.  The "every ____ is like that one" was one of the first and most frequent to go into the giant mental trash heap, of course.

My wife helped that, at least as it pertains to Chihuahuas.  When I met her she owned--or was owned by--a male Chihuahua named Peco.  That little shitdog has managed to prove pretty much every preconceived notion I had regarding him and his kind very wrong.  He's not a yapper, for one thing.  He's also not timid; in fact, he stood up to a moose and lived to tell the tale.  He's a bit overweight, not too much, mind you, but enough to swagger on in and let you know that he belongs to a family that feeds him just fine, thank you very much, kind sir.

Now, I've always been a big dog kinda guy.  My first dog was a lab/shepherd mix.  My second dog was--um, well, a lab/shepherd mix.  I knew a guy who got an English mastiff, and I loved/coveted that great big heap of love.

Then the kid brought home a pomeranian.  I've never been a big fan of poms, but this one rescue animal latched onto me like there was no tomorrow, and I had absolutely no defense against the stares of love.  I'll never forget that lovely lady in a dog's body.

Unfortunately she passed away from some strange stomach ailment soon after we moved to Virginia, and in doing so she left a hole in my heart that was nearly un-fillable.  Nearly.  In defense against the sad weepies, we adopted--you guessed it--another Chihuahua.  This one, though, was long haired in answer to Peco's short hair.  She is needy in every way that he's not.  She's--well, she's a perfect answer to him.

Those of you who know me through Facebook already know my lovely little Chihuahua lady, Yuki, aka Princess Poopsalot.  The kids joke that anything they do they're punished for, but anything she does she gets away with thanks to her little eyes of sparkly love. In fact, they say, half of the things she does, they get punished for.

That said, now that I've run into three completely different Chihuahuas, lemme tell you that the breed represents an amazingly diverse lot with a ton of personality.  It's amazing to me how different the two Chihuahuas who deign to be in our family are, and in turn how different they are from the first one I met.

So, on that note, I end my tribute to Chihuahuas, such as it is. 

- TOSK