h2g2 The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: Earth Edition

We now have 2 dogs.

Well, to be strictly accurate, we've had the new dog for 3 weeks tomorrow. If we'd gotten her a few days later, I probably would've remembered to write about her before now--we got her a few days before Halloween, so pre-NaJoPoMo this year

Anyway, We've had Penny, our boxer, since she was 14 months old--she's now 5. We love her to bits, and I have lots of photos of her wearing PaperKid's outgrown dresses. We've talked on and off about adding another pet indoors (Notepad wants a kitten. When asked what she wants for Christmas, a kitten is the only thing she will answer. She's probably not getting a kitten this year...) but hadn't come to a firm conclusion either way. Except we certainly wouldn't be getting a toy breed--I don't care either way, but Tom doesn't like little yappy dogs that look like rats (his words, not mine).

Well, 4 days before Halloween, while Notepad and I were on a futile quest 'round the charity shops for a princess dress, I get a call from Tom. He was helping a family that was having to move ASAP and could not take their dog. "She came right out to me," he said. We spoke about it, with me being direct but not once mentioning the dog directly, since Notepad was within earshot (PaperKid was at home), and we decided to bring the dog home for the girls.

So we now have a 6-year-old 6 pound female chichuahua The stereotypical yappy rat-dog Who has decided that she is Tom's dog, though she likes me almost as much. Abby (originally named Tinkerbell...) has warmed up quite a bit to the girls, which is remarkable, really, since the home before the last one involved abuse from children About the only thing she won't allow our girls to do at this point is pick her up--the children that abused her would throw her like a ball, so that aversion is pretty understandable...

Penny wants to play with Abby so badly (especially the first day--"It smells like a dog, but it's tiny! It must be a puppy! Puppies play!" *Rear goes up, paw bats, playful puppy barking*), but Abby will have none of it. Penny lets anyone and anything take food from her bowl (Tom caught a chicken in here once, chowing down, and Penny was just watching) but let Penny pause near Abby's bowl, and eesh. Other than that, Abby's fitting in fairly well, and it's been less than a month.

"Tom caught a chicken in here once, chowing down, and Penny was just watching"

That would have made an interesting photo. It also means the chicken might think she's a dog.

The small dogs definitely seem to have large views of themselves My partner used to tell me stories of her toy breed dog, who used to keep her friend's Great Dane in line when they went walkies together