Meet Maxi. 
After five years of volunteering at the local no-kill shelter, no one was more surprised than me that this little guy barked his way into my heart.
He’s a Chiweenie. I know, I’d never heard of it, either, but apparently the Chiweenie is a “designer dog”, a mix of Dauchshund and Chihuahua. Now, Spawn has been crazy for Chihuahuas ever since Beverly Hills Chihuahua came out. I’ve never seen the movie, but I know every line of it because the kid watched it over and over in the car during a thousand-mile trip a couple of years ago. I suppose I should be glad that Beethoven isn’t a current movie.
So Spawn wanted a Chihuahua and me, well, I’m not so crazy about ankle-biter dogs. I’m more of a terrier girl. And definitely a cat person. And damn those folks at the rescue center for putting a crate of tiny puppies in the cat room. Every time I walked by, he went berserk. So I got him out of the cage, and he snuggled up in my lap, and fell asleep. And that was the point at which I knew I was in big trouble.
The thing about a new puppy? It’s like having a newborn in the house. Crying in the middle of the night. Potty breaks at all hours. Baby gates up. A general upsetting of the household apple cart.
Four days into it and he seems to have acclimated pretty well. First order of business was learning about cats. He seems to be a quick study. And he’d rather be in someone’s lap than just about anywhere else. He’s pretty sociable, which is a big switch from the cats and something to learn to appreciate. So other than trying to impress upon him that the world (and not my house) is his toilet and what NO means, so far so good.
If you’ve been keeping a tally of the Moxville Zoo, the population now looks like this:
- Four cats in the house
- Three cats outside
- A turtle
- A gerbil
- About a million guppies
- And now, a very small dog
I keep telling myself that Spawn will always remember Mom’s (mostly) willingness to have pets, and those memories will be golden someday. Of course it helps that I like animals anyway (with the exception of things that slither) and have the capacity to care for them.
And I suppose it helps that I am a crazy person.
– Mox
Maxi is adorable! You’d be crazy not to bring him home. I wish I could reach into the screen and hug him!
Ah, too cute! I’ll have you know that Catherine was a “cat person” too until her daughter’s dog, Loki, won her over. Get ready to fall in love.