I know that some people think it's silly to celebrate the birthdays of their pets, but in this family, we have family members who wear fur year-round. Yuuki is a little dog about 15 pounds or so. He was advertised as being a full-blood Chihuahua when my daughter Laura was bent on buying her first dog. We had family pets, but she was going to get her own dog with her own money. I tried to talk her into going to the shelter, and we usually do, but she really wanted a Chihuahua. I think she had plans to teach the dog tricks and she wanted to put clothes on it, and you know, be a young and crazy dog owner. Laura was 18.
Laura had just turned 18 and was literally just back from having toured with Ozzfest. She was a performer on the tour, and though she only went on the western side of the tour, at 18, hanging with Ozzie and crew, she learned more in a few weeks than she had ever learned. She felt that owning her own dog (we had Faith) would be her way of showing herself that she could be responsible and she couldn't wait to pick out her pup.
We arrived at the center, the home where the breeder lived. Immediately, I felt that we must have the wrong address. I couldn't see anything remotely resembling a breeder's facility. Nope. We had run up onto a real puppy mill! It was terrible!! We later called the authorities and we were able to show them exactly where the lady resided. Before calling the police, however, Laura did "rescue" through payment, one small little black dog that she was told was a full-blood Chihuahua, but I think we both knew that longer body and snout gave us cause to think that maybe a quick-acting Dachshund (of which the woman had a few) had made his way over or under the fence -- probably under.
Yuuki was named for one of Laura's Japanese show characters I think. I think it means courage, I'm not sure. Anyway, as he grew older we could tell the boy was a Chiweenie and that's OK. We don't care! We love all of our babies the same. I am rather happy (to be honest) that he wasn't a full-blood Chihuahua because he had a much better attitude (most of the time) when he wasn't trying to dominate the world around him and us. He lived up to his name. He had courage!
Today, our Yuuki is 15 years old and we didn't even have a birthday cake, but we did treat him to his favorites and we did spoil him rotten all day - - we spoil him rotten every day, so he may not have noticed, but we did pull out the party hats, of which he refused to participate with or in. He's not stupid. He's old enough to know we will be a bit silly at times. Happy 15th Buddy!!
Breakfast: nothing
Snack: Papaya and licorice
Lunch: Avocado and blueberry smoothie with powders
Dinner: Chicken and rice.
1300 calories or so, and only 10,000 steps. I suck.
Water, tea, water, sparkling water!! Coffee.
Photo Credit: Me and Laura Stringfellow
No comments:
Post a Comment