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Half chihuahua, half... something. Maybe corgi. She looks like a regular tiny chihuahua but with golden retriever ears and fur. Her brother (who we didn't take) looks like 100% chihuahua, except corgi-sized, about twice as big as she is.
They're roughly two years old, abandoned together at the animal shelter from an abusive environment of some sort. Brother seems to have come out of it okay; he marks his territory and is protective in a yappy way, but is generally playful and going to be fine. Sister--the one we've adopted--is an anxiety-ridden mess. She shook for hours when her foster mom first took her out of the shelter, and still does so whenever she meets someone new. Took her about 20 minutes to stop shaking with me when I went to visit, but by the end of it she was cuddling and licking my hand for more belly rubs. Foster mom says she's never heard her bark, and she's generally very low energy and just wants to be held and snuggled all the time. I was concerned about splitting her from the brother, but the foster mom said actually they do better apart; the brother was a playful bully and ran roughshod over her all day long.
The reason I'm sure her previous home was abusive and not just neglectful is that when I came back a second time with the kids, she bolted to the corner of her pen, growled, and peed herself all at once. I feel sure she belonged to a family that let the kids do whatever they wanted to her. But mine are very gentle and certainly understand what anxiety feels like, so with gentle coaxing and patience she eventually came around to them as well. She desperately wants kindness and isn't permanently jaded.
The only thing I'm worried about is that in about a month she has to go back to the shelter to get spayed. The procedure is a requirement of the adoption, and the shelter pays for it, but the foster mom warned me that she's going to freak the fuck out when she sees the shelter again. Once I actually have her in my possession, I'm going to negotiate with them about having it done at our vet instead, just to keep her away from that place. Technically I could just say "fuck you" and not show up for it--I would lose a $100 deposit/bail money that's supposed to ensure that doesn't happen, which I can live with, but the shelter would also probably blacklist me from future adoptions. So I need to get them on board and provide proof it really happened and all that.
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