Kiko

Breed: Chihuahua rescue
Age: 10
Weight: 5 lbs
Born: Mexico
Favorite food: Anything that you are eating at the table.  Her favorites are toast with butter and steak
Nick-names: Little rat, rattie, little baby rat, shnitie-shnoozle, shnoozle

Kiko was rescued at the mexican border, stuffed and taped inside a car seat with 28 other puppies.  The dog smuggler was arrested and she was brought to the shelter with the other puppies.  She was 5 weeks old (too young to be taken from her mother) and very sick with Distemper, Giardia and worms.  The vets did not believe she would make it as she was only 3 pounds.  I worked in animal care at the time and that is where I first set my eyes on her, in the back of the humane society locked in the white puppy rooms full of sick rescued puppies.  After seeing her for the first day, I could not sleep all night because I was thinking about her.  The next day I began fostering to adopt her.  She was presumed not to survive the Distemper and all the other puppies of larger breeds were dying each day, so her name was “puppy” for the first two months as I tube fed her and hoped for the best.

Kiko pulled through the illness and began to thrive.  I called her Kiko because it means “Spot” in Hawaiian and it is a female name in Japanese.  Kiko is an inspiration to me on a daily basis and one of the greatest teachers I have ever met.  Kiko has made me the dog trainer that I am today.  She is also proof that a dog that had to stay in quarantine for the first few months of her life during the critical socialization period, could be transformed from a extremely fearful dog into a confident and highly friendly dog towards all humans including small children.  Kiko is a true lap dog and loves being pet for hours.

The lens in Kiko’s right eye became semi-detached, and started bumping into her cornea causing her much pain, so her eye was removed.  I was very sad when the day came to remove the eye, but was soon over-joyed that Kiko became happier that I had ever seen her in years after 48 hours of the operation. She must have been in pain for quite some time before we found out.
Kiko has an inspirational fighting spirit, and will live forever.