It was as if we had a 2 year old child living with us, but it wasn't a child. It was our puppy, Phoebe.
She was two months old when we found her at one of the animal shelters. She had just been spayed, so she was in hte medical area, with a cone around her head to protect her stitches. We had found her because on that day, it was raining horribly, so they had moved the dogs from their cages. So, we didn't see any small dogs, so we headed to the main office to find our where they moved thm. On the way, we saw a door, with a sign indicating that it was the medical area. So, my wife knocked at the door. They let us in. A couple of the dogs were yapping constantly, but they were all sick or recovering. Phobe, then called Precious, was sitting in the cage, loking forlorn.
My wife asked to hold her, and upon removing her from the cage, she immediately started licking my wife's face and showing affection. She was handed to me and she nibbled on my nose. My wife fell in love her immediately, so we went to the office with the paperwork, paid the fees, changed her name and registered the puppy.
She was quiet the whole day, not making a single sound. That changed the following day, as she barked at the fridge, the door, birds, any foreign noise.
She instantly became devoted to my wife and would get separation anxiety if my wife left her sight, even for a moment.
We love her to death, but she can be a brat. For instance, efforts to train her in the car have been to no avail. She can sit on my lap, however, she fights and struggles to get onto my wife's lap when she's driving and stays there. No amount of commands or holding the leash helps. She will struggle violently until she gets her way.
She loves toys, and my wife is always getting her something. She has quite a collection. She can be greedy at times. For example, she loves tennis balls. We got a package of three, so one goes with us to the dog park, the other two we toss around the apartment and she runs after them. When you try to take it away, she will exhibit her extreme agility and avoid our grasp. One day, she had a ball in her mouth. I saw the second tennis ball on the floor, so I picked it up. Upon seeing this, she attempted to get the other ball, even though her mouth was full. So, in trying to get the second ball, she would drop the first. Then with the second ball in her mouth, she saw the first ball, and attempted to get it, dropping the second ball. After a few rounds of this, she would bark at both balls for their uncooperate nature, as they sat there, blank and green.
At the park, she is not overly aggressive with other dogs, and can run with the bigger ones. When we are in the car, or on a walk with the leash, she will gov nuts if she sees another dog, barking uncontrollably, until we remove her from the scene.
Though she can be a pain at times, she is very affectionate and loving. She is also easy to train. We potty trained her in three or four days.
I have taugh her to sit on command, and she knows that I mean it when I say "Hey!" in a certain tone. We have other things to work on, but she's young.
She is a half Chihuahua and half something else. Her body looks like a whippet, or a fox terrier, with muscular back legs, and a lithe greyhound body. She runs extremely fast and very quick on her feet.
In public, she is an angel. My wife puts her in a harness, and carries her in front, like those baby pounches, and she doesn't bark, doesn't get feisty. We take her everywhere, to grocery stores, to electronic stores, to pet stores, and she is so well-behaved, everyone coos and aahs over her.
When I say she's a different animal at home, they don't believe me, but it's all right. She's part of the family.
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