We took our usual route down Lewis, then we turned left and walked down Matthew, then left again and started down Wilderness. Now, Wilderness starts out straight, then curves a couple of times. It was on one of these curves that I saw him.
I had just finished fastening a little pink blossom to Mischief's collar (Yes, I'm a loser) when her neck got all stiff and her ears shot up. Usually, this means that she sees a cat somewhere and starts whining, but she didn't whine this time. I looked around and spotted what looked like a large rat cowering by a stone flower bed in the middle of someone's yard. Closer examination revealed it to be a baby Chihuahua. I was ecstatic, but I was trying to be quiet so I wouldn't scare the precious baby off. I knelt down and reached my hand toward him. His tail went between his legs and he crouched down on the ground. As I got closer to him, he took off and headed for the street.
I dropped Mischief's leash (she never moves until the person walking her starts moving...such a good girl....) and followed him. Just as he was about to crawl in a storm drain for shelter, I scooped down and grabbed him. He was literally halfway in the drain already. I held him up to my face and looked right in his little brown eyes and I saw nothing but fear. So I stroked his ears, told him it was okay, tucked him under my arm, grabbed Mischief's leash, and continued on home.
The whole time I was walking, the little chi was shaking uncontrollably. I kept kissing his little head and telling him it was okay. When I got home, I kicked the front door because I had no free hands. My little sister Jylly opened it and immediantly saw what I had in my hand. She squealed and started flapping her hands around saying, "He's so cute he's so cuuuuuute!!!!"
Now, normally when I find a loose dog, which is quite often, my mom says not to bring him in the house because he might get attached. But, I just couldn't let the little chi go. He would get run over or attacked by some bird of prey, or something. So I took him in the backyard and waited for my mom to get home. I sat in one of the patio chairs and put him in my lap, where he curled up in a tiny ball and went to sleep.
After what seemed like ages, I heard the back door open and my mom came out. She saw me sitting there, and said "What do you...." Her mouth dropped open and she gasped. "Oh my god...." she whispered as she picked the sleeping baby up. I told her the whole story of how I had found him and she just went nuts about how cute he was. I then mustered up my courage and asked the fatal question...."Can I keep him?"
The rest is history. I named him Bruiser after the dog in my favorite movie, Legally Blonde. We took him to the vet (I paid half the vet bill) and learned that he was perfectly healthy. We bought him food and a little collar and matching leash. Jylly gave him her Build-A-Bear bed, that he still hasn't slept in. Bruiser is officially mine. Mischief is my mom's pet, Boo Boo is Jylly's and Bruiser is mine. He's coming with me when I move to College Station to go to vet school. I nicknamed him "Rat" because of what I had first mistaken him as. My mom calls him "Gremlin" because when he's on his back and his ears are up and he's growling, he looks like the mogwai with the mohawk from the Gremlins movie. He just got his first sweater, a little green and red "Fall Leaf" sweater for when he gets cold. He sleeps in my bed when I'm home and my mom's when I'm at Dad's. He's my baby, plain and simple. He's Mama's Little Boy. I know that little rat-gremlin with be with me through EVERYTHING, and that's exactly how I like it.