Rat Dog

Friday morning as I was leaving for work, I began loading my car like I always do, opening the passenger door and throwing my purse and a light jacket onto the passenger seat. As I was doing this, I felt something touch my foot and saw out of the corner of my eye what I thought was a furry white rodent come out from under my car. Looking down spooked, thinking a rat was attacking me, I waited and it appeared again, smelling my feet. This time I got a good look at it. That white furry thing was a teeny tiny dog, smaller than my size 9 Vionic sneaker. It looked up at me with gigantic upright ears, bulging light brown eyes and a pink nose. It looked just like Pinky the rat from Pinky and The Brain. This rodent like dog truly was a sad sight. Every single bone in it’s back and rib cage showed through it’s thin skin and patchy fur.

I was running late for my In-Service meeting and didn’t have a whole lot of time to think my actions through. So I reacted on impulse with my animal loving heart. I picked the rat-dog up and brought it in the house, showing my husband and youngest son. 

“Look what I found.”

“Is that a rat?”

“No. I think it’s a little Chihuahua that looks like a rat.”

“What are you going to do with it?”

“I don’t know. What should I do with it?” 

“Get rid of it.”

“I gotta go. It’s so malnourished. You can see all it’s bones.”

“Put it back outside.”

“I can’t do that. Maybe I’ll put in our backyard with Sweetums.”

“That’s not a good idea. Take it to Susan (our dog loving neighbor).”

“I don’t have time (she likes to talk a minimum of 20-30 minutes).”

“What are you going to do with it then?” 

“I don’t know. I guess I’ll put it in Sweetums’ crate with some food and water and deal with it when I get home.”

I could feel my husband’s frustration. The last thing he wanted me to do was keep this little dog. He’s not a huge fan of animals and knows all too well the frustrations I’ve experienced with our current puppy. I quickly got the dog some food and water, then headed out the door.

48 hours later, we still have the little rat dog. I introduced it to Sweetums yesterday morning by accident and it went surprisingly well. I feared that our hyperactive Husky-Lab puppy wouldn’t be able to control herself and her behavior, but fortunately I was wrong. 

I opened the backdoor with the intent of taking a load of laundry out to the laundry room that is in our backyard, but as I was exiting, so exited the little tiny dog meeting our 40 lb husky-lab mix literally coming nose to nose with each other. 

It wasn’t perfect, our Sweetums acted like herself, how could I expect anything else? She was bouncing up and down on her front paws while the little rat-dog cowered with it’s tail between it’s legs watching the bigger hyper dog with keen eyes. Then the little dog began barking and growling, though it didn’t sound much like a bark, more like a bunch of squealing and squeaking. Keep in mind this little dog probably doesn’t weigh much more than a pound and all of a sudden it had Sweetums backing up bowing down and then eventually laying down. 

I decided since this dog could hold it’s own, I would leave it in the backyard with Sweetums for a while, especially since it is not house trained at all. Shortly after I left it out with Sweetums our boys decided to join the dogs outside. We don’t usually leave them out with Sweetums unattended, because Sweetums can get so rambunctious and has a tendency to jump on the boys and has knocked them down with her excitement. Yesterday and today I stayed close to the backdoor and backyard windows keeping  an eye on the boys and the dogs. To my surprise and relief everything went smooth. The dogs were getting along and the boys played along side them without any troubles. It was as if this little rat dog has finally brought some balance to our lives. 

The only problem is my husband keeps telling me, “we are a one animal household.” He desperately wants me to take this dog to the pound or the humane society. When we talked about it with the boys, they decided they want to get rid of Sweetums rather than the little dog, I’m guessing because Sweetums is so hyper and tends to jump on them out of excitement, whereas the little dog, is calm and assertive with her tiny little self. She is not a threat to either boy. They can pick her up and do what they want with her without a problem.

While I want to honor my husband’s wishes, there is a part of me that believes this dog came to us for a reason. I kind of feel like she needs us and we need her to provide balance and help calm our wild husky-lab. I also understand my husband’s concerns. I have been so overwhelmed with having to take care of Sweetums. She is a lot of work and is not trained very well. He views this new little dog as one more thing on my plate that I am not able to handle. I’m not sure what to do.