10/20/2022
Gather 'round, it's storytime! Read for a little tale on how our journey started with Chili.
Back before we were even engaged, we lived in a little (450 SF) carriage house in historic Savannah, Georgia (about a block from Forsyth Park). We thought the house seemed empty, and were in desperate need of a dog! We went to the Savannah Humane Society on June 30, 2006 in search of our new family member.
A small dog was all that could fit in our small house (to my utter dismay), but luckily there were 5 small dogs in Pen #3. We looked at a little dachsund named Lola, but we didn't quite jive with her. Then we saw a note on a little chihuahua named "Chili". He had no hold on him (he was a surrender) and needed a home immediately because he was deemed "needy". We took him out and played with him for HOURS, finishing by holding him like a baby. We were heartbroken to have to put him back in the pen (he had a list of applications, we put in application #11 for him). The next morning we got a call that we were chosen to be his family! We took him home with literally nothing, not even a collar or water bowl. He didn't seem to mind.
Chili was 9 months old when we brought him home. We were told he was a surrender from his breeder, then ran away from his previous adopter (and ran back to the HS). He was nearly impossible to potty train (we finally got it after a LOT of baths) and would play with his food piece by piece (so we ended up with a bit of a roach problem). He loved to play with toys, figured out how to steal food very covertly off our plates, and weaseled his way into sleeping in our bed. Only 3 days after adopting him he went to a fireworks display with us (I was too worried to leave him alone, concerned he'd be scared). He went to countless concerts in the part, was a fixture walking on River Street (he had his photo taken many times) and even would sit behind the counter at the hat shop where I worked. He'd sit on our lap and eat tacos from Taco Bell with us (and I may have snuck him into a college building or two). He had a little chihuahua buddy named Loki who belonged to friends of ours that he would play with (they ended up passing away only 3 months apart). Loki and Chili even went to Tybee Beach together in the winter to experience sand and salt water (verdict: Chili was NOT a beach dog).
He ended up flying all the way back to Boise with us for Christmas 2006. Then we took a 12 hour drive down to San Francisco before flying back to Savannah. He LOVED his soft sided crate and enjoying the flying. We had a bit of a scare getting on the plane- we found out that Chili could unzip the crate and he was about half way out and ready to run down the terminal! Lucky for us, a vendor had some twisty ties and we used those to secure him. And we used those twisty ties for the life of that carrier!
We had a fun and beautiful time living in Savannah together. I think of that time in my life really fondly, it was the first time we had our own place and we made our little family (Chili was very much our first "kid"). In June of 2007, we moved to the Raleigh area. Chili was always up for new adventures, and our move to Raleigh involved a lot of change for our little guy. More on life in Raleigh in the next update!
