With Chloe there was an instant connection. I hadn't had a dog for months. It killed me not to have a dog. They have always been my passion since I was probably 2 years old.
We went to visit some friends in Alabama who had recently lost their dog. When their dog died they went to animal control and met some dogs. They actually had met a Schnauzer a few days before and were planning to get it but when they came back to pick it up it was very fearful and growling. They decided against taking the dog and asked if there were any other dogs they could see. The kennel person brought out Chloe. She was not what they were looking for AT ALL but when the kennel person told them that she had been there for over 90 days and didn't have much chance of not being put down, the husband (T) said "we'll take her". The wife (R) was shocked, as this was not the type of dog they wanted, but if T had fallen for her so quickly, she hoped she would with time.
A few days passed and she wasn't feeling a bond with Chloe (originally named Nina at the shelter but renamed Alex by R) and both T and her agreed that she was not the dog for them. They couldn't stand taking her back to the shelter where she would likely be put down, so they decided to foster her until they could find her the right family.
Later that week is when we showed up. We actually met them at a large shelter in Alabama (not the AC where they got Chloe) that day to help them find the right dog for them. We looked around a nd saw some gorgeous dogs. I was missing having a dog so much. Finally we found a Lhasa mix (their do who had died was a Lhasa) who was perfect, but someone had looked at her earlier that day and were planning to come get her. The shelter people said that they were closing in a couple hours and that if the woman hadn't contacted then regarding the dog by the time they closed, the dog would be T&R's. So we left and went out to eat. The whole time we were so nervous but R told us all about Chloe and we tried to "subtly" talk my dad into getting a dog. We were actually told that she was a full Chihuahua, and I've always loved Chi's so I was thinking "this is perfect!". Everything we heard about her made her sound like such a great dog and I was so excited to meet her! After we ate we went back to the shelter and the woman had called and said she couldn't get the dog! So T and R filled out some paperwork, sat down in another room with the shelter person and talked, we left with (who would soon be) Muffin.
When we got to their house my dad was already there (he and T had ridden together with my brother). I walked in and there was this (very obviously not full blooded) little Chihuahua sitting on my dad's lap. R joked "looks like Alex has already won your dad over!" My dad just laughed and set her on the floor and said "watch this you guys" and Chloe put her front paws on my dad's leg and used her head to press against his other leg and shimmied up onto his lap(which she still does to this day)! It was so cute and funny! My dad was laughing and I thought "wow, I really hope he's falling for her." The rest of that day my sister and I played with "Alex". We realized really quickly that her name didn't fit her. So we (though we didn't think she'd ever in a million years be ours) started thinking of names for her. My sister said she looked like the boy dog (Papi) from Beverly Hills Chihuahua, but she couldn't remember the girl's name (I hadn't seen it yet) but she knew it was a cute name. She finally remembered that her name was Chloe! It was adorable, not too common at the time, and fit her perfectly! I loved it and so we started calling her Chloe. R agreed that it fit her better than Alex and we all tried to convince my dad that Chloe was perfect for our family. She slept with my sister and I on an air mattress that night, and I wanted her so badly...
The rest of the weekend (we ended up staying Monday as well because it snowed) we tried to "subtly" convince my dad that we needed this little dog. I don't remember exactly how it happened but my dad said yes. We were all in complete shock. We were going to have to leave her with T and R for another week because she had been scheduled to be spayed by the shelter, and it was going to be free (since they had paid the adoption fee).
So we packed up our things and were walking out the door when I looked down and Chloe was looking at me like "where are you going without me?" And I started to cry. I didn't want to leave her. I felt like I was leaving a part of my heart there. And I was a little bit scared that my dad would change his mind somewhere between Alabama and Tennessee. I gave her a hug and a kiss and got into the car. R stood there in the doorway with Chloe in her arms, and I looked into Chloe's eyes until we we were too far down the driveway to see her, with tears in my eyes.
A week passed and we found out that the shelter pushed back her spay due to some event they had going on, and we were going to have to wait ANOTHER week. We decided we wanted her now, and we would get her spayed in TN. So my parents met them halfway (I was in school) and brought her home to TN.
The first several months were great, I was so in love with her, and she was the perfect little dog. Then one day my sister had her outside on her leash using the bathroom when she saw some neighbor dogs loose in our (unfenced) yard. Chloe ran toward them, and her leash snapped! She fought with the huge dogs (an ACD and two lab/gsds) until my mom saw it and screamed so loud that it startled the dogs and it gave Chloe a chance to run up to the house. My mom and sister brought her in with blood all over her and them, and when I saw her I was so scared. She looked so bad. She was in shock and had TONS of puncture wounds all over her and her stomach looked like it was bleeding from the inside (she had herniated, badly). We rushed her to the vet and they had to do emergency surgery. I sat there with blood on my shirt and hands just shaking (probably in shock myself) and crying, and thinking "I can't lose her, I can't live without this dog." We went home and waited for the vet to call.
Eventually she did, and Chloe had survived the surgery but was still on rough shape. She would remain on IVs and be kept under close supervision until closing and then she would come home for the night and be sent back to the vet the next day to remain under supervision and be kept on the IVs. We went to pick her up and she looked terrible. Holes all over her body, and she could hardly move except to wag her tail at us when we got there. <3 When we got her home, we layed her down on the couch and I sat there and watched her breathe for hours because I was so scared she would stop breathing. But time passed and we put our mattress on the floor and slept down there with her for the next couple weeks, and it took a lot of wound flushing, bandage changes, and time, but she started to heal.
That was 3 years ago. And aside from the scars, she absolutely perfect.
Sorry it was such a long story, but I felt like I needed to explain. Long story short, I wanted her before I met her. I loved her the second I laid eyes on her. I knew she was mine when I drove away with tears in my eyes. And I knew I couldn't live without her when I almost lost her. She is my heart.
I tell her that I love her every single day, and I hope we've got a lot of days left. <3
Since this is so long I will do Violet in another post, later.