Three Very Important Topics

Oh, I have so much to talk about today! First, I have to tell you all about my weekend. We went to Lake Tahoe! We drove a super-long way, and I was very good in my carseat the whole time.

We took lots of pee break stops and I got to leave pee mail everywhere along the way. When we got there we took a short walk in the forest and I had to pee some more to claim the area as my own.

The next day we went on a never-ending-hike to Lake Margaret. I walked almost the whole way there all by myself! I only had to be carried over the really rocky parts. Everyone who saw me commented on how cute I was and how I was the littlest dog they had ever seen on the trail. Here I am jumping over a big log and showing how athletic I am:

When we got to the lake I was very tired, so I took a little nap in Daddy’s lap. On the hike back to the car I was pretty beat, so Mommy carried me part of the way in my special backpack. When we crossed this fallen tree bridge I took the opportunity to look closely at the water for any fish that might be hiding in there (you should embiggen this one for full cuteness effect) :

On the way back we stopped at a little stream and we all dipped our feet in to cool off—even me, and I hate water! This is a shadow picture of all of us at the little stream:

All in all, the hike was five miles, round-trip. And I walked most of the way all by myself! I told you I was a trail dog!

When we got home from our long weekend, I was catching up with my doggy friends’ blogs, and I saw that Dobby gave me an award! Because he loves my blog! Gee, that is super cool! Here is my special award from my special chihuahua pal:

I believe I am meant to pass this award along to other worthy bloggy doggies. Eek, however will I choose?! I think I will pick Tadpole, because he is super cute, has very well-placed freckles, and he always makes me smile. Hooray Tad!

And then on Lorenza’s blog, I saw that she tagged me to tell about my first day with my parents. It was about two years ago, in June of 2005, but I still remember it because it was such a relief to get there. Listen, I’ll tell you all about it:

I started my life somewhere in northern California. I was found as a poor little stray puppy and turned in to a shelter in San Jose. It turned out that not only was I lost, but I had a broken pelvis too! They called me “Bella” (but I knew that wasn't my real name) and took some x-ray pictures of my pelvis. You could see all the little bones in my tail—neat! But what wasn’t so neat was that my pelvis was pretty much shattered. Nobody came to adopt me or claim me, and soon I was transferred to another shelter in Santa Clara. Again, nobody adopted me, so I was transferred again to the Santa Cruz SPCA. That’s where my Mommy found me! She was the shelter’s education director at the time, and she fell in love with me right away! She called Daddy and said, “Um, how would you feel about fostering a puppy with a broken pelvis for just one night?” Daddy responded, “Are you crazy?! You want to bring home a puppy and then take her back the next day?!” But no, Mommy was just trying to be sly. She always knew she wanted to keep me—she was just trying to easy Daddy into the idea. It turned out he didn’t need any convincing.

That night when we got home I was curled up into a ball on the floor in between Mommy and Daddy, and Daddy said, “I never knew I could love a chihuahua so much.” They knew they wanted to keep me. And that, pretty much, was that. I was so happy to be out of a cage and into a lap. They were going camping that weekend (plans made before me, and not an appropriate outing for a pre-shots puppy with a broken pelvis), so I had to spend the next night with one of Mommy’s very nice co-workers. But Mommy and Daddy missed me so much that they cut their camping trip short and came to pick me up early! While they were hiking on their short-lived camping trip, they came up with the name Poppy. It’s the state flower of California, you know! And one of my Mommy’s favorites!

This is one of their favorite early pictures of me. They said I looked just like a baby deer:

I spent the next couple of months being carried around while my pelvis was healing. Crate rest shmate rest, I say. Being held all the time is the way to go! Here I am, so happy to be in my forever home with my forever family:

And here is a picture of me with my sissy Clover from that first summer. I am waiting patiently for her to finish her wet treats so that I can clean off her plate. I have always been very helpful:

Here is one last picture of me from two summers later (ie, this summer!) so you can see how big I have gotten:

What? You don’t think I have gotten any bigger? Well...I have! I was only four pounds and one ounce when I came to the shelter. Now I am nine and a quarter whole pounds!

I hope everydog had a very nice howliday weekend. I sure did!

Bye for now,
Poppy