Before we thought we could have children, we had four legged children. We bought Poncho Villa in March of 2000. He is a yorkie and was right at one pound and we brought him home wrapped in a wash cloth. He stole our heart from the very beginning. He is a momma's boy and I worry about him as I do my two legged children. He will be 12 in January 2012 and he is starting to show his age. He is right around 5 pounds and has an enlarged heart, partially collapsed trachea, cataracts, irritable bowel syndrome for dogs and sometimes a limp with his back leg. So basically he is like an old man that can't see, has coughing spells, is on a special diet and needs a walker (also known as "mom please carry me").
After bringing Poncho home, Jason wanted a dog for himself. Although the plan was to get Lexie Lou (also a yorkie) for him, she also turned out to be a momma's dog. We brought her home in June 2000 and he is like a little mother hen. She is 12 pounds and will be 12 in April. Other than having sensitive skin and a few seizures, she is healthy as a horse. She is obsessed about food so we call her Hoover sometimes too. She watches over our children and will lay in the bed with them until the last one is up. She has had a couple spells of seizures over the last couple years. These seem to be brought on by anxiety. She first had one when we brought Henry home from the hospital 2 1/2 years ago. She had one when we had a lot of company one weekend, another when we were transitioning Henry from a crib to a toddler bed and most recently she had a seizure due to the kids being extremely LOUD and her nerves were on end. Our vet says she doesn't need medication as these are very random. She is my "daughter".
Max was our rescue dog. I told you that I wanted to rescue all the displaced dogs but unfortunately I only had room to bring one home. Jason was not very happy with me when we came home with Max but I couldn't leave him at the Humane Society after seeing and playing with him. He was great with the kids and the kids love for him was mutual. He is a Chihuahua and was about 6 months old when we got him and he is now almost 2 years old and he weighs 7 pounds. We bought him for Wyatt but Max quickly let us know that he wanted to sleep in the adults bedroom not the childs bedroom. He chewed a hole in the baby gate that I had put up to keep him Wyatt's room. At first I thought he just wanted to be near us but after having him for almost two years now I realize he wasn't wanting to be close to us, he was wanting to be close to Lexie. I think he sees her as his mother. He will lay in some of the weirdest positions just to be close to her (sometimes this doesn't help with her nervousness). I guess he thinks he is part cat because he likes to clean Lexie by licking her ears and fur. He is a friendly little guy who has won Jason over. He is happy just to be sitting with someone and to be loved. Jason says that the only thing Max is sad about is not being able to go tell all his pound friends how good he has it now, I must admit that is true.
