I would like to introduce you to Cocoa my little quilting buddy! Well, OK he doesn’t always like to stay in the studio as it can be cooler there and his bed in the upstairs hallway is a good spot to watch the stairs to see who comes up and keep one eye on the front door.
This little guy has brought a lot of sunshine to my life! He is a deer headed chihuahua that we named Cocoa.
We found each other two years ago. I had completed my cancer treatment just two weeks before and was still not well. I would force myself to go out and do at least one thing a day and that day I volunteered to go grocery shopping.
Well at the mall where the grocery store was there was also a pet store that had rescued dogs. I would go and stand at the window and check out the dogs (we didn’t have one at the time and I was missing that). I am a sucker for spaniels and on this day the store had a rescued spaniel cross. I asked if I could go in and interact with the spaniel cross. Well inside the pen playing with the spaniel cross on the floor I saw some movement out of the corner of my eye. It was circling around very gingerly, got up close put his two front paws on my legs (I was sitting on the floor), licked me twice on the cheek and curled up in my lap and just looked at me.
It turned out the spaniel cross had been spoken for, and he was for too energetic for me at that time anyway but it was nice to have some puppy time. As for the little guy in my lap I asked about him. He was found starving to death on the streets of Las Vegas. He had to have some teeth removed and had severe ear mites. My heart went out to the little guy but I was really not well so didn’t know how I would care for a dog.
I called my partner and told him the sad tale and he said the same thing I was thinking. It just wasn’t the right time to get a dog. So I continued on with the grocery shopping before my energy ran out and I wouldn’t be able to finish before having to go home. I finished my shopping and was about ready to leave and the little guys face came back to me and I knew I couldn’t leave him behind.
I went back and asked to see the little guy again and went into the room and just sat on the floor. It took a minute but the little guy got up from where he was curled in a ball. Circled gingerly around until he came close and then slowly crawled into my lap and just looked at me. Well, that was it, he was coming home with me and I would just have to trust that things would work out and he would be house broken and not need too much of my energy.
I texted my partner and told him to not kill me but we had a dog. He texted me back and said he figured as much and I better send pictures. The shelter had named him Elmo but it really didn’t suit him. Kevin, my partner named him Cocoa as he was chocolate brown.
Not sure if you can see how skinny he was or his poor scabbed ears. He is pictured above with one of his favourite toys just after I brought him home. He tends to hoard his toys it is too funny. This little guy makes me smile every day and we helped each other heal. We both needed lots of rest and would nap together in the sunshine. We are now both happy and healthy and I am so glad I trusted my intuition that it would all turn out alright.