Dennis with Tiny his mummy and his 7 brothers and sisters 2 weeks

Dennis middle sleeping!

Dennis ( left) at 4 weeks with his brother!

 Our Brave Little Soldier Dennis!

Dennis is a 6 1/2 month old Chihuahua who joined our family in August. He was out playing football last week ( on his own I may add, he heads the ball then chases it. ..and does a stunning dribble with his front paws!.) when his legs gave way and he just sat there with straight legs, but seemed in no pain, He had dislocated his knees!! Quite common in small dogs is this trait, sadly, It is Luxated Patella's where there is no "bed" in the femur for the knee cap and the ligaments have stretched, So Dennis has undergone major orthopaedic surgery on Thursday and is now on 6 weeks rest duty! Harder than it sounds!! He has his op on his other leg in 5 weeks, Oh poor wee Dennis.

So we thought we would share some of our treasured pictures of this dear little dog ( I never thought I would say that about a tiny dog!)  I have always had big working dogs and used to train obedience to a high level. My Golden Retriever, Benson, was Pedigree Chum obedience champion in 1990 and I had a wonderful Yellow Lab ( Abi )who competed at very high levels, although she had a witch of a temperament!! Working in close quarters to other dogs on team events was always interesting!! Her greatest obedience  trick was to do a retrieve exercise with an unwrapped  bar of chocolate, this always went down well with the other lab owners at shows. .Labs are known to be well rather , food orientated!! !! She could also do distance control at 50 yards on hand signals alone and would track a scented cloth out of 20 cloths scented with other peoples scent, she would ALWAYS find mine and bring it back proud as punch, Those were the days! I do miss working with the dogs and travelling around to obedience trials, so it would be funny to get Dennis highly trained too, but we shall see! Heel work is hard as he is no bigger than my foot!

You can imagine my dilemma, that as I wanted a dog back in the household desperately, Mark being chronically allergic to dogs, it was impossible.  However, it was proven by his mother having a Chi, many moons ago, that this was one breed that did not aggravate him?? So When we went to a breeder in Wisbech to collect  Fizz our British Shorthair cat, Gill's Chihuahua had had 8, yes 8 Puppies! I came home and discussed it with Mark and we decided that maybe this was a sign! So Dennis was chosen at 4 weeks and visited again at 6 weeks and a couple of weeks later he came home with us. I will NEVER again say little dogs do not have the "IT" factor, EVERYONE who meets Denis falls in love with him, even one of my greatest friends who referred to him as a "handbag attachment" before she met him, now adores Dennis and smothers him with love when she visits!!

So here are a few pictures for you to enjoy of Dennis's journey to date at the Blue Ribbon household, we figure Dennis has earned his right to be a superstar on the NET!! Get Well soon Dennis, ENJOY!!

Ok , when I am big, d'ya think I will be able to lift this??

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