Little and Fiesty

I have acquired a second foster, a teeny, tiny, itsy-bitsy, bitey-bitey black-and-tan Chihuahua girl.  One of the Shelter Clinic Techs pulled her from the Stray area  because she was so nippy she would have been euthanized and urged me to take her home and "tame" her.

Evidently, I have become the "small dog lady".  I'm also considered the Chihuahua expert--which makes me laugh!  My off-site Team Leader, who loves the big lunk-head Labs, was impressed how I dodged the Chi's nips in order to get a slip leash on her.  If you use a towel and grip her from behind, she can't get you with her itty-bitty teeth.

This little girl is tee-nincey, weighing maybe two and a half pounds.  She growls (a teeny sound) and rolls her eyes and nip-nip-nips!  Her bite isn't strong, but she is a wiggly, fiesty thing.  She is terrified and doesn't hesitate to let you know how she feels. She did eat some chicken from my fingers at dinner tonight and she seems calmer than she did yesterday, when I first saw her.  Hopefully, she'll come around.  She is absolutely adorable--my 16-year-old squealed like a kid when she saw her.

Tinker Bell (as I'm calling her since "El Diablo" is a boy's name) isn't in good shape--her toenails were so long (before the first bit of trimming) that the front feet nails curled completely under.  She's skinny and has a silver dollar-sized bald patch on her right side (an old burn wound?).  She came in as a stray (how on Earth did the Animal Control officer catch her???) and hasn't been spayed or checked for heartworms (with my luck lately, she'll be heartworm positive).  I just hope she doesn't get distemper like Arabella did.