Let me begin this post by saying I am not a fan of Chihuahua dogs. I’ve been bitten, barked at, charged, herded and growled at many times by the breed. A friend of ours in the neighborhood once told me that the canine breed most likely to bite a human is a Chihuahua. They just seem to have been born grumpy.
And to prove my point, this story showed up yesterday in the Hartford (CT) Courant newspaper. The local animal shelter is waiving an adoption fee for an ill-tempered four-pound Chihuahua named “Pixie” who “doesn’t like men, children or affection except on her own terms.” A Facebook post about the dog said: “She will hate you AND expect her dinner to be served on time.”
But it was sad to read in last week’s Albuquerque Journal about 64 Chihuahua dogs who had been rescued after a van transporting them had collided with a large truck near Vaughn, NM. Police said they believed as many of 110 of the dogs were in the van. Of those, 18 were killed outright, 64 were rescued and the others escaped, no doubt to become snacks for area coyotes.
Police said it was likely the dogs were coming from a “puppy mill” because of the poor condition of many of the animals. My hope is that the operators of the Chihuahua puppy mill, along with the people who were transporting them, get arrested, convicted and sentenced with cleaning up dog poop in animal shelters for the rest of their lives. In the meantime, the East Mountain Companion Animal Project has set up a GoFundMe account to help the animals and arrange for their adoption. You can go to the site at:
https://gofund.me/8cfa0b77
I think certain people like Chihuahuas because they are small and easily portable, fiercely loyal to their owners and provide some degree of protection.
Unlike Reese Witherspoon’s pet Chihuahua, Bruiser Woods (real name Moondoggie) in the movie “Legally Blonde,” our dog Chester is not “easily transportable.” And he’d just as soon beg for a treat from an intruder than protect us.
Chester (at a fluffy70 pounds) can’t be easily hoisted into a handbag. Not only is he big, but his legs flail around wildly when anyone tries to pick him up. He also takes up the entire back seat of our pickup truck or the back of our SUV when we travel and commandeers our entire couch when he wants to relax — which is a good part of his every day routine.
Even so, I’d take him over a Chihuahua any day. But I do hope the Chihuahuas from the traffic accident near Vaughn find happy homes — even if they love to hate their new owners.
aero-cordero.com 