I have four Chihuahuas of varying ages. Gabby is 13, the Twins, Annie and Theo, are 8, and Katie Belle is 7.
Gabby is the oldest, so she is Alpha–or at least that is what she tells the other puppies. They don’t necessarily respect her authority. She is the most outgoing, though, and the friendliest. She has her own purse that I carry her in and she loves to go everywhere with me. It’s like being with a rock star–people see me carrying a tiny dog in a purse and they have to come over and ask her name and how old she is and if they can pet her. They could care less that I’m an author who voices her own audio books. Everyone just wants to see the cute, friendly little dog.
The Twins look nothing alike, but we call them that because they were the only 2 born in their litter. We weren’t looking to get 2 puppies, but once we met them, we couldn’t bear to separate them, so we adopted them both. Annie is the little blonde girl, and Theo is the big, beefy boy with one floppy ear. Theo’s nickname is “Roo” because when he is excited (like at dinner time) he jumps straight in the air. Like, as high as my waist. That’s a pretty big jump for a little dog. The funny thing is that Roo is a big cuddle bunny and Annie is a tiny little pistol with a huge temper. She picks a lot of fights at our house.
Katie Belle is the youngest and the biggest. When we first got her she was so tiny she couldn’t even run through the grass because it was taller than she was. Now she is grown up and doesn’t miss an opportunity to remind the other Chi’s that she is bigger than them. The other 3 picked me as their main human, but Kaite is a daddy’s girl. She loves to play ball with my husband and has to go everywhere with him. On the rare occasion when he leaves her home, she pouts all day. And when he comes home, she practically cries–her little face screws up and I’ve actually seen a tear or two in her eyes.
They are a pack of spoiled pups, but considering there are so many animals out there in need, giving them the best home and the best life possible is the least I can do. My husband feels the same, so it’s a good thing we wound up together. In my distant past, I broke things off with guys who either didn’t like animals or who didn’t understand what my dogs and cats mean to me.
And speaking of cats, I have 2 at the moment. Athena, who is 14, is a long-haired kitty who is solid black except for 2 toes on one of her back feet. It looks like she dipped them in white paint. She was born to a feral mom who lived on my husband’s uncle’s property. We helped him catch her and her kittens and had the momma spayed and released her again–she was happy with the life she had, and happier once she was fixed, plus, she kept the mouse population under control for Uncle Ted. We also found homes for the kittens–and, of course, one of them (Athena) ended up with us. When we named her after a Greek goddess, we didn’t know how appropriate her name would turn out to be. She routinely reminds us that cats were once worshipped as gods, and I think she’s petitioning Congress to have that practice brought back and instated as an American tradition.
Vinny the Suit is my 10 year old boy kitty. I named him that because #1, he is always wearing a tuxedo, and #2, he is the last of my cat mafia. At one time, I had 4 male cats who always hung out together in a pack–the Cat Pack, lol, rather than the Rat Pack. One by one, they passed away, and we weren’t thinking about getting any more, but you don’t always get to choose, right? Athena is very social with my husband and me, and she and Gabby are BFF. But ‘Thena doesn’t hang with other cats, so when Joey was the only male left, he got lonely for his brothers, and Vinny came along at the perfect time. A friend had gotten him from the Humane Society but couldn’t keep him, so we brought him to live with us. It was one of the best things we’ve ever done. Vinny made the last years of Joey’s life happier, and we can’t imagine life without him, either.
The asterisk to Vinny’s part of the story is that he and Theo live to torment each other. Remember Claude the Cat and Firsky the Puppy from Looney Tunes? Yeah, that’s Vinny and Roo. 
