The new dog

Foxxy is is such a state of jealousy! We got a smooth coat chihuahua from the pound, and now we have a complete family. 2 laps, 2 dogs. Foxy is a little bit upset about the food issue, but we are going to have to work on that.

Sable!

Foxxy is a sable dog. This means she has the agouti genetics that give her a reddish coat with black. She has stiff black hairs between her shoulder blades and on her tail. There are also black hairs on her lips although you can't see those as well because her lips and nose are also black. she also is color diluted (chinchilla) which is why she looks more tan than red. Underneath those red tips is bone cream fur. We shaved her in a lion cut for spring and where we shaved was completely cream for about two weeks with the exception of the black hairs between her shoulders and a darker muzzle stripe.

Lots of people think her coat looks like a golden retriever But she's not recessive red. Now, we're nt probably going to shave her ever again, but she sure looked like a cute little lion with her mane up front and short hair in back with this wonderfully plumed tail

Diet!

I weighed foxxy on the kitchen scale. She's a full pound heavier than she was in October! Oh I felt so bad. a pound is a lot of weight on a tiny dog like foxxy. So. She's on 2% of her body weight in meat now instead of the average 3%, and she gets 2 long walks and 3 trips to the dog park instead of 1 long walk one trip to the park, and 3 walkings out to the poop post. At least it's not cold and snowy like it was in teh winter.

Life's lessons of love

So I have been feeling down lately, what with being long-term unemployed and having student loan debt over my head, and frombeing rejected from yet -another- application and so I curled up with a book. Foxxy was curled up in her kennel, which is her "alone" place.

But then I hit a point on the book that made me lol and instantly, foxxy was up and in my face, sniffing my mouth and wagging her tail, and I had to just stop and laugh some more, which, of course, makes her act really silly. I felt a thousand times better. She didn't care what I was laughing about, after all, she can't read, she just wanted to be right there in my face enjoying a moment of laughter.

I guess I have to learn to laugh more often, and for apparently no reason.

I am Cute. Pay Attention!

Foxxy craves attention. It's like an obsession with her. She wants to go out of her way to meet all sorts of people. It's sort of a big change from the shy girl she was when we first got her. Now, she runs up to peole and demands a petting. Of course, as tiny and cute as she is, everyone wants to stop and pet her or coo at her or pick her up. She loves children too, which is odd, because she's not been around little kids. I think she's just pleased to see humans that are on her level.

she enjoys being dressed too. I think she knows she gets more attention if she has a shirt on. Right now, her newest is a pink doggie-t that has "I heart Snow" on it. It is true! she thinks snow is the best stuff ever. She plows in it, digs in it, eats it, jumps in it. She actually goes out of her way to jump into drifts when we walk by them. I just shake my head and wonder what happened. I call her a little sled dog. I tell her "you're a chihuahua, you know. You're not supposed to like inclement weather" and she smiles and sticks her tongue out at me, then tears off down the hill after a rabbit.

I took her to hefflinger park yesterday, our City's dog park. I was not pleased to see that the gate was broken off of the small dog area of the park, but we had a good time in the 5 acre "all dog" area. there was a good mix of big and little dogs running around, and she ran her legs off for a good hour and a half before I noticed that there were more big dogs than I was comfortable with and took her home. 5 acres is a lot of land for little leggies, and she just loves to be with other dogs. At our apartment complex, we have a private 1/2 acre dogpark, and she actually howls and chirps when she can't visit with the other dogs. it's really sad! It's one thing to run with all the dogs at the big park, but I'm not sure I trust the owners here. usually I only let her play with dogs under 20 lbs while at the park at home.

Poor fox. My mother in law has an airedale, a Bernese mountain Dog, and a Border Collie. the border is 16ya, and is a grizzled, toothless old man. Usually everyone gets along fine, but we were visiting the other day and she got chomped by him because he wanted the pig ear she had. Good thing he has no teeth left! I never want to hear her scream like that again.

Fluffy!

I was looking at the pictures I have of her. She has gotten so incredibly fluffy! I don't know if it's diet, or because she was sterilized, or because of the winter, but all at once she went from being scraggly and thin to poofy and fuzzy.

These days, she's a lot more vocal. She has learned to actuallysay "out!" as well as "Hello!" She says it quite clearly. Hello is the really cute one. she said that one first to us. We always come home and tell her hello. I suppose as intelligent as she is it was only a matter of time untill she started parroting. She now grumbles and "chats" with my husband. its a combination of growls and barks and grumbles and sneezes that she does that reminds us of a conversation. She does this when he comes home from work and sits down. It's super cute.

She also bounces on him to wake him up. She knows when he needs to be out of bed.

Barking Barking Barking

I know she's a dog, but at he most embarassing or annoying times, she barks. like at 4 AM when she hears the neighbors below us stirring to get ready for work, and my husband and I are both fast asleep. Or when she sees a squirrel out the window in the middle of a phone conversation. or when we go to the pet store.

The barking issue is quite serious. I need her to be quiet and not interested when it comes to passing other dogs. But she just goes ballistic. it's not vicious. She is just so exited that she has to vocalize. And the pitch of her bark is quite piercing. It's annoying and embarrasing and frightens other dogs. Nothing I do will get her to quit unless I totally remove her from the situation, and even then she grumbles the whole way.

O my Snow!

Poor Foxxy! It's hard to live life with a 5 inch clearance when there is 12 inches of snow on the ground. I put up a couple of pics my husband took. It didn't quite catch her at her happiest. mostly she wants off the leash, but we couldn't stay because the neighbors have a sort of pecking order about the park. big dogs seem to get all the time they want there, and whenever a small dog wants to use the park we always have to wait. Even in the blowing and drifting snow. Because obviously big dogs deserve the park more. The karma is on them anyways. The bigger dogs have owners that don't tend to pick up poop for some reason. Oh yeah and their owners let them trash the fence. they're the ones who will eventually be banned for defacing property. We got chased out of the dog park by the neighbor next door that demanded that his precious GSD's get their chance immediately, when Foxxy hadn't even been off leash for more than a minute. Seriously.

but she really does like the snow very much. She hops through it and digs in it, plows throug it, and omes back with that huge ear splitting grin that betrays her pomeranian side. She still does not shiver much, even in the very cold. I don't know what I am going to do tomorrow. We are supposed to have 50 mph winds, and I can't take Fox out in that. I would have a kite instead of a dog.

Fluffiness and Love

it's been a while since I made an entry here. Foxxy hasn't gained any weight since her spay. But she has put on quite a bit of fuzz. She is even cuter now than she was when she came to us. It really is amazing what a lot of love will do. She has tons of toys now. She's quite the little chewer. We didn't want her getting clogged up with beefhides, which are her favorite, but the nylabones are starting to be chewed on. Initially she wouldn't chew them. She seemed to know that tehy were plastic. But as long as they smell like liver its alright I guess.

She's quite the healthy little fuzzball, and does not shiver like a lot of toy breeds do. She looooooves the snow, and her new sweater that I knited for her. Speaking of which it's supposed to snow alot. I will have to blaze a trail for her. the way to the dog park crosses through about an acre of park and anything over 4" she will be swamped.

The new pics are up so you caould see. she doesn't sit still much any more. She's more active than the chis she meets at the park and at pet socialization hour at Petco. I took her there. She wound up romping with the 13 week old lab Titan because none of the other dogs wanted to play as vigoorously. But they wore each other out and it was reallycute. Once she got rid of her energy, she was content to hang out with the smaller dogs. She has absolutely no fear and quite a lot of sass.

The theory of teh kyootness

I have been puzzling over her breeding. I know in the long run it is not important, and we don't have enough money to run the blood tests to figure it out, but yesterday at the dog park, she got to hang out with purebred chis and a pom. that pretty much confirmed it. She's definately a chihuahuha pomanian mix. She went nose to nose with the pom and wow does she look like it. But she still has the long haired chihuahua coat type and short legs and the straighter tail. I guess you can only do so much with pictures. It was really good for her to hang out with dogs her own size as well.