I never thought I’d be one of those small dog owners, yet here I am absolutely LOVING it.
The thing with tiny dogs is, they’re so portable. I know there are risks with small dogs. They aren’t really great guard dogs. I have to stay vigilant against hawks and other larger animals (i.e. almost anything bigger than a bunny).
I realize you don’t hear of 10-pound Shih Tzus protecting their owners from, say, a bear. I’m not worried.
If necessary, I can pick Jackson up, and we can run. Not very fast, mind you, because I’m not a track star and his legs are 2 inches long, but we can make an effort.
Size. On the other hand, smaller size does NOT mean smaller dogs are more affordable. They are not.
Nova Grace developed Addison’s disease a few years ago. If you have to have a dog with a disease, Addison’s is, I’m told, the one you want to have. After a frightening near loss of life, much prayer and salvation, she was saved by a very dedicated friend and some amazing veterinary care.
Her disease is now managed with monthly medications. One of these being prednisone, which means she has the ravenous appetite of a shark.
Properly juiced up, she spends most of her time trying to figure out how to get food, steal food from the other dog, steal food from the cat, and perhaps make food appear out of thin air.
Due to her health issues and because I’m the Meanest Dog Mom Ever (having honed my skills on parenting humans, it was an easy transition to pets), I do not allow the dogs to have table scraps. If she could dial a phone, she would absolutely have reported me to the Humane Society already.
Due to my being just terrible, I instead spend the equivalent of a car payment on monthly shipments of high-priced pet food and treats consisting of only the most natural ingredients including, but not limited to, unicorn tears (probably).
They’re worth it. They are, after all, categorized (by me) as Adorable Support Dogs. Jack is roughly the size of a large loaf of bread, fluffy and blonde. Nova is a sleek black ball of high energy (and that was before the prednisone).
Having been raised by us, GirlWonder married, moved out, and immediately adopted TWO small dogs of her own — as you do.
“Granddog” Grizzly is a former puppy mill survivor. Having spent probably two straight years confined to a cage, he had zero spatial awareness. He was afraid of stairs, benches and pretty much everything else.
He also had heartworm. Keeping him calm during treatment wasn’t hard. He barely came out of his crate for the first month. Since every dog needs a dog, they added a small maltese/yorkie mix adopted from the local pound almost immediately.
“Koda” is my other granddog and if you ask me — he’s clearly gifted. Koda is the tiniest dog I’ve ever personally been close to. He weighs 6.4 pounds. The .4 is very important for him to feel manly.
Jackson seems to enjoy having a dog around who is smaller than he is. Koda is also smaller than our cat. He remains unbothered by his size. Koda has all the small dog energy in the world.
Big. Due to a demanding summer law associate position, GirlWonder needed my assistance to escort Koda to a veterinary appointment. In the waiting room he was perched on my lap, just being absolutely darling and charming everyone in the room. A large dog who, if uniforms are to be believed, appeared to be a K9 officer, passed within inches of us. At that moment, the 6.4-pound floof on my lap LUNGED at this enormous beast. Our little guy was growling and carrying on AS IF HE COULD POSSIBLY TAKE ON 100+ pounds.
The highly trained dog barely blinked and continued on, unbothered. If you ask Koda, however, he absolutely vanquished that beast.
We had big dogs for years. Big dogs have many amazing talents. Our German shepherd patrolled the perimeter, herded the children, evicted all the raccoons, squirrels and stray cats, and kept our soccer balls deflated for 14 glorious years.
Still, as empty-nesters, it was almost required that we become small dog parents. There are outfits. Coats when it’s too cold. Home set to just the right temperature even when we are away so the dogs are comfortable.
Honestly, I realize we are ridiculous. But we are enjoying ourselves very much. Boywonder and his fiancé have a very large golden retriever. Someone had to hold the family’s pride.
For the record, our tiny dogs are convinced they take him too.
They didn’t choose the tiny thug life. The tiny thug life chose them.
