Shane's mom adopted her from an old lady with two chihuahuas who couldn't take care of them anymore, after seeing an ad in the newspaper. One chihuahua was her aggressive brother. So Annie May Oakley (nicknamed Doug) came home with Shane's mom, and became best friends with Shane. She has a birth certificate SOMEWHERE with her real name and "Sire" and stuff?? So she's technically some sort of pure bread...
Doug is one of the sweetest lil' chihuahuas I've ever had the pleasure of meeting. She has more of a cat personality than a dog type - she likes to sleep in bed with us, or hang out on the couch next to us, but she would prefer not to have tight cuddles or be too clingy (as opposed to our weenies Jack and Jill who would love to stick their heads in our mouths if they could). It's probably because she has very sensitive skin, she's easily irritated from dirt and dust and bugs so she's easily overstimulated by too much petting.
She has her own type of clinginess, in that she wants everyone to be in the same room together at the same time. If she's alone in the living room, she'll scream and break into our bedroom just to sit 10 feet away from us. If one of us is in the kitchen and the other in the living room, she'll break down the baby gate just to make sure she can see the kitchen human, then break the gate back into the living room. Her whining has grown into a gruesome scream in her old age, and she's so old that she starts coughing after howling and barking too much. The weenies like to provoke her into howling, by first barking at a car, then baying, then everyone joins in the symphony.
She was a very good auntie to Jack and Jill when the weenies were puppies! She's pretty good with baby kittens and cats, and doesn't care about them too much and lets them snuggle with her. And she oversaw our baby chickens when they were lil' yellow chicks, making sure to sniff them and then sneeze. She's still pretty good friends with Jill, Jill would love to play with Doug more often but Doug is too old to keep up with Jill's rolling and jumping. We can still get Doug to play with us and chase our hands around the carpet! And Doug does the cutest thing where if she wants your attention, she'll paw at your hand and grab you towards her.
If a "stranger" (aka a neighbor who's been in more than a couple of times) comes in our house, Doug is more bark than bite. She doesn't even have teeth any more to bite LOL. She'll scream and bark and run towards the stranger, then after 10 seconds she'll walk back to her napping spot and fall asleep. I think she's pretty good with "stranger" pets, and she has no aggression instincts towards humans.
Now towards other dogs... Doug and Lil' Bit (our other oldest dog, a similarly aged 15+ year old weenie) get in tussles over food often. Lil' Bit still has a couple of teeth to bite with, and is much heavier. And they sort of fight over who gets to snuggle with Shane's mom in the blankies. But they've never seriously hurt each other! Except for one or two times when Lil' Bit knocked out some of Doug's teeth... otherwise, it's mostly growling and screaming and gumming at each other.
Our friend Gabbi did a REALLY good portrait of Doug, and made some cute crochet clothes for Doug as well! I think Doug likes to sleep in sweaters during cold weather, otherwise she'll scream all night. Comfy!
