From day one, she's had a mind of her own and is extremely choosy about who she deems worthy of her affection. But once you make the cut, her loyalty is unparalleled.
She has survived seven pretty serious attacks from other dogs, the removal of many of her teeth as she has aged, and various minor surgical procedures like a trooper. Don't let her size fool you - she is a tough chick.
She has only stayed in a kennel overnight twice in her life. The first time she did fine, because she was pretty young and not yet stubborn and obstinate. The second time, her "report card" declared her to be "feisty" - a big word for a little seven-pound dog. Spot on. She certainly rules the roost at our house and expresses her displeasure toward the other dogs with one sharp bark - her version of "Knock it off!" - when she is annoyed with them.
She is the best car traveler - she curls up in her little bed in the back seat and doesn't make a peep, whether is it a ten-minute or ten-hour drive. Although if the other dogs are in the car, too, she'll give them the aforementioned bark because they walk around in the car, which irritates her.
She is comical! For years, a neighbor's golden retriever came over to our house whenever we were outside because he so badly wanted to be friends with Chelsea. Chelsea wouldn't even entertain the thought and would just shake uncontrollably and yelp pathetically until we took her inside. One day, she'd had just about enough of his advances. He lumbered over when he spotted us outside, and she high-tailed into the garage to avoid him. He followed her in there, and that was it. He'd gone too far. The next thing we saw was this giant, furry dog being chased out of the garage by our tiny dog using her most ferocious bark. Had I been videorecording the event, I have no doubt I would be much wealthier today thanks to AFV.
My favorite Chelsea story is from when we were living in Chicago. There was a gas leak in our apartment and so we had no heat while repairs needed to be done (might I mention this was Chicago in January!). I was teaching kindergarten at that time at a corporate child care center, so I called work and explained the situation. I told my boss that either I was not coming to work that day, or I would have to bring Chelsea with me because I had no intention of leaving her alone in a freezing cold apartment while maintenance people traipsed in and out. My boss didn't hesitate and told me to bring her in. Twenty five-year olds and one very small dog made for an interesting day. The kids were so sweet and crumpled up sheets of paper for her to play with and taped sheets of paper together to create blankets for her. To this day, I smile when I think about that. Chelsea was so well-behaved that day, despite being held and petted by small, clumsy, sticky hands for eight hours.
She is now our little old lady, with a lot of frosting on her face. But still feisty as ever. <3
Chelsea, 1999
Chelsea, 2014
Happy Tails to you!
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