by Veronica Bright

Created on: August 13, 2008   Last Updated: August 17, 2008

A couple of years ago, I and my 11 year old daughter walked into a pet shop. I didn't go in with the intention of buying. I am normally a Humane Society type of person. As we strolled down the glass units, we came across several cute animals, but when we passed by a cubby with a little Chihuahua in with a young bull dog, it was love at first sight! Both my daughter and I both fell in love with the tri-colored Chi.

I held out as long as I could as my daughter begged me to buy this dog. "$1600!" I said, "Are you out of your mind?" All the while I'm looking down at that sweet tiny face. Needless to say 30 minutes later we were walking out of there with Dog, dog supplies, and pedigree papers.

The dog, for some unexplained reason, became attached to me. (Do you think it may be because I was the one who fed it?) My daughter loved holding him and carrying him around. I took the dog wherever I went.

Being a huge Red Sox Fan, and the dog being a Chihuahua and all, we named Him PAPI. (Yes, I know David Ortiz is Dominican and Chihuahuas are Mexican, but get past it) Well life with Papi was just peachy. He loved my cat. He even began to think he was a cat. In fact, when my cat had kittens, Papi kept stealing this one particular kitten. I guess he thought he should have one. After all, the cat had 4 more! We grew to love Papi more and more every day.

Then, Papi began to grow...

Fast forward about 6 months. I was still trying to convince Papi to either go outside, use the puppy pad, or use the litter box. He preferred my hallway carpet. He was otherwise blending in just fine. He was really nervous around most people. He began to bark at people just walking down the alley, or through the yard. I tried to convince him not to bark unless the people OUTSIDE were trying to get INSIDE, but he wouldn't listen.

I noticed Papi was getting a little long legged for a Chihuahua, and also a bit long. But, we loved him, and I figured he'd quit growing soon. I would have called the pet store then had I not thought they would take our little guy away. We already loved him, even if he was a bit big for a Chihuahua. Well, he ended up being 8 pounds and looks more like a Min Pin than a Chihuahua, but he's family. I have many funny stories about Papi. He has never done anything News worthy (unless you count his catmapping the kitten). Plenty of animals do make the news, however.

We've all read the stories about Cats and Dogs who make it home after years of being lost. Every once in a while another pet will pop up in the news. I read an interview recently with Nermal the cat (yes, The Cat...he is the discovery of Rochester, who "wrote" for Itchmo. It was a very clever piece.

Everyone is talking about the Olympics in Beijing. Did you know there were the Animal Olympics going on also? I didn't until I caught the story off AFP. They are calling it "The Olympets". Just goes to show you that Pets are people too! Howard Cheung, who runs the city-centre PetMAX store, said he was "inspired by the Beijing Games".

Have you heard of "Deuce" yet? He is on You tube and there were articles on him. He is a kitten that was born with two faces. Turns out, it is a really pretty kitten. Grey and white. He/She just has two faces.

Jarvis, the Jack Russell from England wandered off from his owner a couple of weeks ago. Seems the determined little dog found his way to the ferry, climbed aboard, rode it to port, then got off and walked home!

It's no wonder we love our pets so. Sometimes, they can seem almost human, and many times, they act smarter than humans. My Papi knows this. Maybe he has been trying to convince me.

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