A Day with Mila

Today was like no other. I've been waiting to sleep in since we got back home on Tuesday and I decided today was the day. It was Alex's day to take Banana for his morning walk but when he returned he told me that a neighbor found a Chihuahua and had taken care of it for the last 3 days but was now looking for the owners. He mentioned that he might take it to a shelter at which point I remembered that we needed to head to the shelter to get Banana some of his favorite lamb treat which we've only found at the Milpitas Human Society.

So...we took the dog, loaded it up in a crate, and headed to the humane society. When we got there, they scanned it for a chip (which would be registered to the owner), unfortunately it didn't have one. They were able to confirm that she was a girl who was either pregnant or recently had babies. They told us that because she was found in San Jose, we had to report her as a lost dog, or release her, to the San Jose Animal Shelter. So, we packed her up again and headed down there.

On the way, we talked about what we were going to do with Honey (we gave her a name by this point). My hesitations in keeping her were 1) Banana is not a fan of other dogs, 2) we knew nothing about her and therefore would have to get her to a vet for all her shots before she could even be introduced to Banana to ensure she didn't get Banana sick.

We arrived at the San Jose Animal Shelter where they said we could give her to them but they couldn't promise us what would happen to her. It would be based on her disposition, which from what we had seen was sweeter than pie, and any illnesses she might have. They said that after 30 days, assuming she was ok, they would put her up for adoption and we could adopt her if we wanted to. We decided to release her to the Animal Shelter.

As soon as I signed the papers and saw her taken away I started to cry, and cried most of the way home thinking we'd done the wrong thing, so we turned around. I just couldn't stand not knowing her fate, and figured at least if she was with us I'd know she's alright and could look for her owner. Luckily, the people at the shelter hadn't processed her yet, so they gave her back to us. We headed to PetSmart to make an appointment with the vet, and got her some food, bowls, a bed, and toys. As we arrived home, we noticed the neighbor that originally found her was outside. As we got in the house, he rang the doorbell and asked if we still had the dog as he had found the owner.

We walked her down to the house she lived in (which was in our complex), and the owner came down, at which point we found out her name was Mila. He seemed happy to see her, although not as happy as I would be after losing Banana for 4 days. Mila seemed happy to be home and reunited with their other teacup Chihuahua.

Overall, it was an emotional 6 hours all together and in the end bittersweet. I'm happy she's home with her owners, but was starting to warm up to the idea of having another girl in the house. Here are a few pics from her time with us.