This is my little Poncho. He is 9 years old. His full name is Poncho Villa El Bandido. He is a Chihuahua. I rescued Poncho when I bought him from a woman breeder who was not taking care of the dogs she bred or the pups like she is supposed to. He was only 7 weeks old, not even nearly a pound yet, and when I got him, he had fleas. The AKC and the local Animal Control shut her down later on.
Poncho is now 9 years old and has had health problems since he was about 2 yrs old. I am told they are from bad genes. He has really bad hips now, and a underbite, he also has arthritis in his elbows, knees and back. His Vet just put him on a med for pain. He will be 10 on November 26th.
My precious little boy has been a great blessing to me, and I thank God for him every day of my life. When he was 4 years old we got him a sister. I named her Mija, pronounced Mya. She also came from a breeder that refused to let any of her dogs or puppies outside. She bought Mija from a breeder in Ken. and when she grew and the woman saw she wasn't a small Chihuahua, but rather a Long Legged Chihuahua, she didn't want her any more. Thank goodness we came along. I told her she was exactly what I wanted and we took her home. She was 7 months old then and is now 6 years old. That lady was also shut down due to poor living conditions. No I didn't turn either of them in. lol. Mija also is loved every bit as much as Poncho, and they both love each other. I believe in spaying and neutering so both my babies are spayed and neutered.
Here's a picture of my baby boy when I got him. Poncho saved me then. And he's still taking care of me! Careful though, he'll steal your heart.
Poncho is the brown male and Mija is the black female. And I forgot to tell you that Poncho is winking at ya in his picture, he'll do that every so often, lol! Soooo cute!
By Sherry from Portsmouth, VA
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They are both precious! I know that they have given you a lot of happiness; however, they could never repay you for what you've done for them! Thank you so much for rescuing these sweet babies from terrible breeders! I get all of my dogs from the local humane society - right now, I have a 13-year-old female dachshund/beagle whose owner died and a 2-year-old golden retriever mix who was picked up by the dog catcher.
Well, aren't they little heartbreakers. Please kiss them for me but give an extra to Poncho! Thanks for sharing~ Holly
They are both the most adorable Little sweeties,give them both a kiss from me.
They are the most cutest dogs I ever seen in my life. They look so friendly and peaceful.
you saw how bad the breeders were, you should have reported them! to do nothing is wrong.
Hi, your pups are so cute. I own two Chis myself and just wanted to let you know some info I have discovered about dogs in general. I found this on a website to back up what I had discovered from friends, vets and Petsmart ees. The website is:
dog-care.suite101.com/
Here is the important part pertaining to your babies:
Proper diet---What you feed your dog is an important factor in whether hell develop arthritis. Be sure your dogs getting high quality dog food with no added preservatives, food colorings, what, corn, or soy products. Its best to have him on low fat dog food, as well as low carbohydrates. The grains, which compose a large part of dry dog food, tend to increase inflammation, aggravating arthritis. If you want to be extremely safe, prepare his meals at home with cooked meats and vegetables.
Keep him trim---How much you feed your dog is just as important as what you feed him. As excess weight can result in added stress on his joints, you want to monitor the amount of treats you give him, if you give them at all. The more overweight your dog is, the more pain hell suffer from aging joints. When your dog is just a puppy be careful that his diet wont lead to rapid weight gain.
Exercise----Also, make sure he gets plenty of exercise, both off the lease and with regular walks. If you notice he has trouble walking, then dont pressure him to run more than he should. Instead, investigate for arthritic problems.
My 5 1/2 yr old female was 2lbs overweight and started having problems with her back knees and itchy smelly skin. The vet dxd her with arthritis and yeast overgrowth and put her on pain meds and expensive shampoo. I found out how high carb and high fat dog food can make them hurt worse from friends and the ees at Petsmart. I switched her to Blue Buffalo weight control dry dog food and Newman's Own healthy dog snacks. I divided up the amount recommended into 3 and give two meals and the rest for snackies with the Newman's snackies also. (Blue is a holistic food that is more expensive but you don't have to feed very much so it lasts a long time if you buy the bigger bag and just keep it in a plastic container to prevent it going bad.) Since I switched her I also added a liquid vitamin supplement that contains both fish oil and flax seed oil and I have seen a huge improvement in her health.
Dog food with corn, soy or wheat cannot be digested by most dogs and can lead to diabetes, eye cataracts and bad skin problems. Unfortunately the God-forsaken dog food manufacturers are in denial because the food made with corn, wheat, soy, their byproducts and meat byproducts is cheaper to produce. The meat byproducts can be chicken beaks, feet and feathers, cow organs (which can contain more carcinogenic matter) and hide/hair, generally stuff a normal dog wouldn't eat unless he was starving. They put corn syrup in the dog food to make the dogs addicted to it and then the dogs end up with diabetes and cataracts. Your dogs might be better off with home made meals as lots of Chi owners have discovered only after their dogs ended up sick with diabetes, eye cataracts, and arthritis.
Something to remember any extra weight will give your dogs a much higher incidence for cancer just like overweight people have. My neighbor's dog was very overweight and I tried to tell him but he couldn't see it. He dotes on his dog to the extreme but didn't realize he was risking her life by overfeeding her. She did get a tumor in her stomach the size of a lemon last year and now he feeds her Eagle brand holistic diet dog food and she has lost quite a few pounds already.
I want to mention that if you give your dogs chlorinated/fluoridated water to drink it can cause diabetes, heart disease and low thyroid disease just like it can in people. I give my dogs bottled spring water because the filters to get out the chlorine/fluoride are too expensive for me and the amount of drugs they recently discovered in tapwater justifies the expense. I ended up with diabetes, arthritis, chronic fatigue, fibromyalgia and low thyroid before I found this out but I have beaten diabetes and have almost brought my thyroid back to normal. Sorry for the long post but I get carried away when it comes to trying to help people and their dogs have a healthier life since God knows most docs and vets are not doing it.
Sorry I forgot to mention I also feed Vida glucosamine chondritin snacks once a day. They are the healthiest brand I could find after researching all the others. I break the normal snack in half since my dogs are Chis and it really helped my female. My male is only 1 1/2yrs but I don't want to wait until he has a problem. God bless you and your sweeties!
Thanks for sharing this Sherry. They are both lucky to have a 'mum' like you. They are beautiful. God Bless you all. conix Australia
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