Hi there!

My name is Daniela, and I have three beautiful dogs: Mocha, Panna, and Cannelle.

Mocha (or chocolatecoffee...) is a little 4-year-old girl with a big personality. She's a little princess (she makes sure everybody knows that too), and has turned into a bit of a snob from being an only child for so long. I'm not quite sure what she's crossed with, she was apparently a Bichon/Shih tzu, but she's only around 8 lbs. Unfortunately, I got her from a BYB before I knew better (I really didn't do adequate research, I just looked in the paper) and she was very sick as a puppy and we almost lost her, but she pulled through and I couldn't imagine my life without her. She tries to be independent and pretend she doesn't care about her sisters, but once in a while we catch her and Panna snuggling in the same bed and we've seen her playing tug of war with Cannelle (shhh...don't tell her we know!). Here's Mocha!



Next up is Panna (which means "cream" in Italian). She's a 3-year-old Maltese and is just the cutest little thing. When we decided to get a second dog, we had two requirements: it had to be a rescue and it had to be small since Mocha's scared of big dogs. Fortunately, at that time, we could barely find any small dogs in rescues or shelters around us and those that we found were snatched up within hours (now there's a ton, but that's another story). Anyways, after a couple adoptions falling through due to problems with transportation, we found this little cutie in Las Vegas (I live in Canada). She was a 2-year-old purebred Maltese with papers, her owner had died, she had been passed from home to home and they were looking for another home for her. For some reason, nobody was interested in her and this last "owner" wanted her gone. Since she was in risk of being taken to the shelter, which is overcrowded enough as she is, we rushed her up here with a family friend. It took Mocha a while to adjust (after all, she was used to being an only child), but now they really are attached to each other. She needs to lose a little bit of weight, but she's come incredibly far in the past year and a bit (I don't know anything about her history, but we suspect she was abused) and I couldn't be more proud of her. Introducing Panna!



Last, but not least, comes Cannelle (which means "cinnamon" in French), my 11-month old Maltese X (the rescue said that she's all Maltese except for her colouring). She was originally purchased from a pet store by a lady as a Maltese/Chihuahua X (not quite sure what the fancy name for that is, maybe a Maltihuahua? ). This lady had a 2-year-old who was...well a typical two-year-old who wasn't adequately supervised with Cannelle. So when this lady wasn't hitting Cannelle for som reason, she was being dropped, kicked, pulled around by her tail...etc. The lady decided that she didn't have enough time to train her, and apparently that's a death sentence because she was dropped off at the vet's to be put down (a completely healthy, highly adoptable, 6-month-old puppy). The people at the vet's couldn't bear to euthanize her, and a volunteer liked her so much that she decided to take her home for the weekend to see how she was around her current dogs, and she hoped to keep her. I guess this person was a complete idiot because she put Cannelle down in front of four huge dogs, and they must have thought that she was a chew toy. Her elbow was dislocated, her cheek was completely shattered, and her eye actually popped out. Long story short, she barely survived but pulled through like a trooper and ended up in the care of one of the rescues I foster for, and they asked me to adopt her. I thought about it and, in the end, how could I say no to such a cute face? I adopted her on December 18th and she's come so far since then. Her first birthday is on April 24th and the next year is going to make up for the previous one. I know that if that had happened to me, I'd be whining and complaining and not making the most out of life. On the other hand, Cannelle's a happy little girl, she loves to play, and she always has that beautiful Cannelle smile on her face.




I also fostered an adorable Daschund X from Hurricane Katrina, an adorable 11-week-old Border Collie X, and I've individually rescued a Maltese X, a Maltese/Poodle X, a Bichon/Shih tzu X, a Yorkie X, a Boxer X and 7 rabbits from around my neighbourhood. I love American Pit Bull Terriers and Doberman Pinschers, but the little guys have stolen my heart the most. Cannelle's not ready yet so we haven't been able to foster for more than a few days since we got her, but she's getting close!

Anyways, this is getting to be a ridiculously long introduction, so I'll stop now. I hope I'll talk to you all soon, and I'm sure that I'll learn a ton here, it seems like an awesome place! By the way, all of your dogs are absolutely adorable!!!


-Daniela

P.S. I posted pictures here: http://petoftheday.com/talk/showthread.php?t=102847