A.K.A Nicky

It’s time for me to talk about the smallest member of our family.  That would be Ms. Pumpkin Louise, our long-haired Chihuahua.

We are absolutely stupid over that dog: all 5 pounds of her.  She’s fawn and white and she turned 1 back in October.  Pumpkin is gorgeous.  Unlike her siblings, her eyes never turned dark brown but went from totally blue to a blue-green, depending on the light.   Both of her parents are show dogs and she’s pedigreed, so she has a lot going for her.  And contrary to normal Chihuahua behavior: there is no nervous peeing, no yapping or snapping.  She doesn’t even bark!  We’d had her for 6 months before our landlord, who lives next door in the townhouse to our left, even knew we had a dog! And he only discovered that because he came over one day.  He fell in love with her just like everyone else who comes in contact with her!

Actually, Pumpkin isn’t the dog we were supposed to have.  When the breeder called to tell us that the puppies had been born, she said we could come over in a few weeks to see which one we wanted.  So she would email us pictures and Kitty would talk about which puppy she wanted.  She wasn’t too picky, as long as it was a female.

So even though we knew we couldn’t take a puppy until it was 8 weeks old, Christine (the breeder) let us come over a few times to get acquainted with the puppies, and said Kitty could have pick of the litter.  (Of course, she’s Her Majesty Ms. Kitty and the world gives her whatever she wants).  There were two females and two males.  Of the females, one was larger than the other one but otherwise they looked like twins.  Kitty felt more of a kinship with the larger girl, so she’d hold her and call her Pumpkin while I held all the other ones and tried to sneak them home in my pockets.  They were sooo cute!!  If we could have gotten more than one we sure would have!  But it was fun watching Kitty bond.

A couple of weeks later the puppies were able to walk around and play; so we went over to Christine’s again.  Kitty got on the floor facing the big girl and said, “Come here Pumpkin.”  The little runt of the litter came toddling over.  “No no, come here Pumpkin!”  The big girl didn’t even turn her head but the tiny one came over again.  “You’re not Pumpkin.”  “Are you sure she’s not?” I asked her.  “Pumpkin’s the big girl, not this little one.”

At this point Christine said, “Well, it seems as if the little one wants to be Pumpkin since she’s answering to that name.  I was calling her Nicky, but she seems to like Pumpkin better.  I’ll tell you what: you can have the little girl.  I’d honestly prefer the bigger girl because when I breed her she’ll have bigger puppies.  Plus I’d like to show her, and I don’t know how the little one will do.”

I liked the little one, runt or not, and told Kitty so.  And she seemed to want to come home with us, so when the time came we brought Pumpkin, aka Nicky, home with us.

Now you might think that the breeder got the best out of that deal by giving us the runt of the litter. But I’ll tell you what: we’re the ones who ended up with the only show quality pup in the bunch!  Afterwards the breeder and I would schedule the puppies’ vet visits at the same time so they could visit.  And our Pumpkin was the one whose ears perked up early and on their own (no taping).  Her “bite” didn’t go off.  She had the show stance and the show prance.  And so much personality!  She’s so social and loves to play.  Whenever I’d see the breeder she’d ask if we’d like to show her, but the answer is always no.  We got her as a pet, not to live the life of a show dog.  I’ve seen that life, and we didn’t want it for Pumpkin.

So Pumpkin lives a good life with us.  She has 2 adopted sisters which are cats, and they know she is “baby sister”.  Victoria weighs 16 pounds and Luna weighs 10.  I love to watch them play because Pumpkin is so low to the ground and aerodynamically designed, she literally runs rings around the cats and the entire living room.  All the cats can do is lie in wait and try to pounce as she runs by, and it’s very amusing to me.

What isn’t that amusing is the fact that even though she’s not my dog, she sleeps with me every night.  I had always vowed that I’d never sleep with an animal (after my ex-husband, haha) but she’s been sleeping with me since shortly after we got her.  One night Luna kind of attacked her (flexing her diva muscle, apparently) so the girls told me to let her sleep with me for a couple of nights until Luna got more used to her being in the house. 

That was over a year ago.  The dog has 3 beds in the house, but when she wants “snoozie” she has to be in my bed.  Oh, and no TV or lights on, thank you. I have to be on the bed with her.  If not, she’ll start out by just staring at me with those big eyes.  If I still stay on the computer, then she’ll lean a little to the right.  Nothing from grammy?  Then she’ll put up one little paw and start shaking.  If I am still being hard-hearted, she’ll emit the tiniest of whimpers.  That gets me every time...

Everyone that meets Pumpkin gets all excited at the prospect of her having puppies so they can have one.  Who wouldn't want a puppy from the best little dog in the world?  But after much discussion, we've decided that we will not breed her.  She's the baby, and we don't want some freaky-deaky male Chihuahua having his way with her!  Besides, she'd have to have like 12 litters to accommodate all the puppy requests!  So until cloning becomes common: there's only one adorable Pumpkin Louise :o)