Thank you. I just brought his human mother, my friend, some snacks because I knew she wasn’t eating. She rescued this little chihuahua when he was a year old from an abusive home. Sparky wouldn’t let anyone touch him for years after that. He trusted my friend, but wouldn’t let her pick him up and he growled a lot. Her neighbor got him to let her rub his belly with her toes, by sliding her foot under him while he stood there. Eventually, as he got to know me, he let me do the same. He’d back up against my legs and if I should happen to foot pet him he would stay. After a few months, he finally let me pet his head. Well, over the next 3 years he just blossomed. He took walks without a leash, other bigger dogs followed him. He ate like he had OCD – never letting one kind of food touch another on his plate. I would arrive, she’d yell “Sparky, your girlfriend is here!” and he would run out the door to greet me. When it was time to leave he’d get pissed, so he’d walk away inside the house, pause dramatically, shoot that Shrek look over his shoulder at me, then continue walking away. He still growled any displeasure, so I still didn’t try to pick him up. But 2 weeks ago I bought him a rope toy, and I just learned that he took it to bed with him and played with it every night – it was the first dog toy he’d ever been interested in after all these years.

He had little legs like toothpicks, and sometimes walked sideways like a crab because a small mound of dirt could knock him over, he was so small.
I will miss him so much. Animals, like people, are unique and special, each in their own way. It is heartbreakingly wonderful to get to know them well.