Breed Variances -OR- MY MOM HAS A 20 POUND PUREBRED STANDARD CHIHUAHUA WITH FLOPPY EARS!!!!

In my last post, I touched on the subject of conformation and of breed type. I mentioned how Chihuahuas in general have changed relatively little in the show ring for the better part of the last century.

But, you might be saying, if THAT is how Chihuahuas are supposed to look, then how come the 'Taco Bell' dog is kind of different looking? What about Paris Hilton's dog? And...wait a minute...in "Beverly Hills Chihuahua" aren't BOTH of the main characters supposed to be Chis? Why do they look so damn different? What gives? Is this some sort of trick?

Well, it is kind of a trick, really (aside from the cosmic joke that is the Chihuahua in the first place, of course ;-P). The trick is : ethical vs unethical breeding practices. So, how about we start to outline what IS and ISN'T correct for this breed in particular and find out just how we can have such a kaleidoscope of differences!

For starters, going back to my last post, the Chihuahua Club of ( Insert your country here!) maintains a written and illustrated standard of the intangible ideal Chi. Since I live in the USA, I'll be drawing from my country's club page for info but really, there should only be the slightest of differences from nation to nation if any. There is a thorough outline of what is acceptable and what is to be avoided through breeding from coat length/texture/colors to size to alignment of teeth.

Full Standard HERE ---> http://www.chihuahuaclubofamerica.com/breed-info/chihuahuau-breed-standard/breed-standard ( I don't feel like re-reading OR listing the whole spiel at the moment, hehe )

But this is the gist of what we should be expecting/looking for when searching for a 'good' Chihuahua.
And right about now, you might be summoning images of tons of dogs you/your family/friends have owned which were PUREBRED Chis that looked very little like this image. You might be concerned that you actually had a mutt or a MinPin or if the urban legend is true and it really WAS a rat from the streets of Mexico, but worry not. You may actually have had a 'real' Chi. It just...well....might not have been a very good one. And don't think I'm judging you for it because, heaven knows, I own the most wrong Chihuahua ever whelped......

No, the reason your neighbors' Chihuahua weighed fifteen pounds when the standard calls for no less than two and no more than six pounds for the ideal specimen was simply a matter of its breeding. And a dog so far out of standard usually comes from one of two sources; a puppy mill/pet store OR a 'back yard breeder'.

Lets start with the more offensive of the two. A puppy mill is essentially a dog factory. Multiple breeds of dogs are housed in almost universally filthy, cramped conditions, denied veterinary care/basic grooming + hygiene and quality food and kept alive for the sole purpose of churning out as many litters of puppies back to back as they are capable. They are used and used and eventually used up in one of the more horrifying examples of 'supply and demand' aside from dirty livestock trade.

Mill dogs of various small breeds in a classic example of 'kennel housing':

Familiar face......

Dogs, mostly Chihuahuas rescued from one SINGLE mill in their shelter pens: 

Females are bred from their first heat cycle until an age when their litter size would naturally decrease (usually before age 5) when they cease to be profitable and are disposed of. And no, that doesn't mean they find a new home or even have the dignity of a vets' office and sedation before the shot. It USUALLY means either being dumped, a bullet to the head if they are lucky or finally being allowed to starve to death. Between birth and demise though, their days are filled with swimming in their own waste in a too-small cage either being impregnated or nursing puppies. Sometimes, they are re-bred before their current litter is even weaned. But at least then, they're getting fed. Indeed, most dams only receive regular feedings when they are nursing a litter, in order to keep the puppies thriving. Because the puppy is the 'final product', you see, they have to be roly-poly cute little genetic nightmares in order to pay the bills.

Pet stores (yes EVEN THE NICE BRIGHT CLEAN ONES THAT CLAIM TO BE DIFFERENT AND BETTER) pretty much exclusively get their stock from mills. Its the cheapest option to get a full range of breeds from one source in one delivery. How very convenient and economical, right?  The industry makes hundreds of thousands if not millions of dollars each year. And you are NOT rescuing the puppy if you buy from a store. You Are Not. What you ARE doing is contributing funds to keep the place in business another day and while yes, your puppy might end up well cared for and live an unblemished life, you just condemned its mother to another day in squalor and fear. So for decency's sake PLEASE don't even go IN a pet store that sells dogs or cats. Don't give them your business, don't give them a moment's attention and spread the word to your loved ones. For every mill that is raided, another one or two pop up. MORE INFO HERE ---> http://www.prisonersofgreed.org/

As a side note, just because a pet shop puppy is ' kennel club registered/registrable ' doesn't mean jack shit. People often reference that as a point of pride or status for their dog. All that means is, somewhere in the annals of history, both of your dog's parents were the same breed. It doesn't mean they were good looking, possessed all of their limbs or weren't hideously deformed. Just that, for example, they were both Chihuahuas that came from Chihuahuas. The parents do not have to be champions or from champions to be registered, ergo, if you feel the need to point out your puppy is "An AKC REGISTERED Labrador" then its probably from crap stock. Because anyone who would actually do the research involved to find a quality puppy would already know that AKC etc is a pointless thing to say unless you have shown your particular dog to a finished championship. Just sayin'....I could technically have Lucy registered.....juuuuusssttt sayin'.....

The other option, which still isn't good, but is at least a step up, is the so-called "back yard" breeder. This usually accounts for say, someone who never got their two dogs fixed and had an 'oops' litter or some jerk off who wanted his kids to learn the 'miracle of birth' or someone who wants to breed dogs but doesn't want to devote the time to showing or health testing their stock. On the surface, most BYBs seem darn near reputable. Their dogs might come from ten pedigree pages worth of champions and be beautiful animals. Their dogs live indoors, either in nice kennels or in the family home. Puppies come with their first shots, dewormings and started on potty training. You might think you've lucked the hell out, finding a quality dog from someone who isn't one of those 'show snobs'. And you would be wrong.

While I am not saying that your Uncle Bob who bred dachshunds for forty years and never set foot in a show ring didn't love his dogs and care for them to the nth degree, and I'm not saying Aunt Dotties mini poodles weren't actually healthy dogs who made great pets, whether they were or weren't is not the point. The point is that by and large, BYBs are allowing two unproven dogs (working or show) to procreate. They are not generally spending thousands of dollars in health testing their breeding stock. They are not traveling thousands of miles to see how their dogs stack up against other of their kind in shows or field trials. They see no reason to meticulously trace their dog's individual lineage back to Adam, as any show breeder worth their salt should be able to rattle off from memory. Generally, they see no reason to strike a certain line if genetic issues do crop up in a sold puppy a few years down. Why should they, everyone has flukes now and again, right?

All a BYB contributes to the world, ultimately, is a pet. And you might be thinking, so what? Not everyone is going to want a show or field dog, not everyone cares about pedigrees and genetic quality, and WAIT A MINUTE, aren't Chihuahuas specifically supposed to be companion dogs anyhow? What is the big deal? The big deal IS, if you want a pet, if you want just an awesome average dog, even if it has to be a purebred, odds are your local shelter or rescue group has or will shortly have the exact dog you want. Yeah, even purebreds. There are so many Chihuahuas in pounds across the country right now its absurd. Golden Retrievers, Siberian Huskies, German Shepherds, Labradors- all the top breeds in the world make up a healthy percentage of our shelter dog population. So, if the BYB isn't making active strides to improve their breed, with health screenings, and proving their stock in one way or the other then......why do they exist other than the obvious conclusion of people DON'T do their homework and keep buying puppies from these places.


So yes......those are your major sources for a sub-standard animal. And now you're saying "Wait....how does any of this explain why Chihuahuas can look so wildly different from each other?" and here is the answer: If you have people who don't know what they're doing as far as judging what dogs should breed beyond " she's in heat, let 'im loose!" whether through ignorance or cruelty, you get dogs with faults combining to make really.....unusual offspring. Like, the dam has an under-bite and dropped ears and the sire is over-sized and mismarked. You have the potential to create a hulking, oddly colored puppy with a Pug chin and one ear up/one down. Sure, it might be cute. And it might be a purebred Chihuahua....but it ain't winning any prizes and you might have a hard time convincing me of what it is on the streets. Let's go through some of the terms bandied about amongst the less than scrupulous Chi people in the world, that have unfortunately made their way into Joe Layman's vernacular when describing his dog.

"Applehead" - this is actually taken from the written standard which calls for the dog to have an ' apple domed skull' meaning rounded with a deep 'stop' ( the indentation between forehead and muzzle). However, bad breeders A. take it to extremes where the dog has practically no muzzle at all and looks like Felix the Cat and B. a reputable breeder might reference it when disussing points of conformation but would never see the need to present their dog as an APPLEHEAD Chihuahua because.....well.....the dog is supposed to fucking look like that. It'd be like saying "my LONG HAIRED Shih Tzu". No shit.
An 'Applehead' dog. (Not saying this is an extreme example at all, just as a reference tool)

"Deerhead" - This would actually be a fault in the show ring and is essentially the opposite of "applehead". These are the dogs with long, slender muzzles, a more moderate stop and finer skulls in general. Obviously, it refers to the general shape of a deer skull.

This is a shape more likely to occur in a mill dogs nowadays simply because most BYBs seem to have jump on the "OMG BOBBLE HEADED FUR BABY" bandwagon.
This dog would technically be 'deer' headed although again, not as extreme as I've seen them.
Of course, to be honest, I kind of prefer this look :-)

"Standard Chihuahua"- Chihuahuas are not Poodles or Schnauzers. There is no Toy, Mini and Standard size range. ALL Chihuahuas are supposed to be toy dogs. As I said earlier, while there is no set height range, Chis should weigh no less than 2lbs and no more than 6lbs to be considered correct. But, when you throw careless breeders in to the mix, who might have a 7 lbs dam and a 10 lb sire, you are most likely going to get over sized puppies. I'm no genetic expert so I can't give you the straight odds but it doesn't take a genius to know if you only breed your biggest dogs, you'll eventually wind up with bigger puppies altogether. And since the trend now is to make them as wee as possible, you would have to say SOMETHING to explain your heavier-than-a-soda can puppies, right?!
So a lot of people now have it in their minds that a Standard Chihuahua is one over 5 lbs and anything less than that is somehow miniature. Which explains why whenever I walk Lucy at least one person asks me if she's still a puppy because godDAMN I have seen some grossly over-sized Chis out in the world. And why people think my 10lb corgi/terrier mix Guthrie is a Chihuahua.
This fella ( who actually is very reminiscent of Guthrie at a glance but don't tell him I said that!) is oversized, oddly built and has a 'deer' head but is purportedly a Chihuahua. Even if he's not, scores of identical dogs on the streets and on teevee prove my point.

And on the flip side of that coin, my least favorite word in the universe since owning a toy dog:
"TEACUP"- According to scores of completely clueless jackasses, this means an extra-special rare SUPER small Chihuahua. According to people who know a thing or two, its a sensationalist buzzword for either extremely runty dogs that probably shouldn't have survived whelping let alone gone on to breed OR absolutely normal sized Chihuahuas in the 2-6lb range that just seem extra small to the people whose only reference are their family's "STANDARD" sized dogs ^^^^. Either way, it's a phrase constructed to make people pay exorbitant amounts of money for the deformed little garden gnomes like they're something to covet because celebrities have made palm-sized living accessories tres` chic` in the last decade. The CCOA says it so much better than I could though, since I'm verging on sputtering rage-fueled rhetoric at this point: http://www.chihuahuaclubofamerica.com/breed-info/chihuahuau-breed-standard/teacup-statement .

Anyway. This is what one of the little buggers will usually look like.

(I imagine its wondering if they will give it some soda so it doesn't succumb to the near-constant threat of hypoglycemia it must suffer, not unlike a hummingbird, before scheduling a visit to an orthopedic vet specialist to look at that fucked UP foreleg. )


There are other things fadding right now in the BYB/mill world, like merle coated Chis or solid/pied blues. Even albinism. Needless to say, forced color mutations can cause a landslide of health problems and as of right now I believe merles are the only coat pattern currently NOT allowed in the AKC ring. So, if you find a great looking breeder who has merles or uses ANY of the terms above in defining his/her dogs: Run Away.

To re-iterate, no, I don't think you're a bad person for loving your sub-par Chi. No, I don't blame you for not knowing better or even refusing to know better when the opportunity presents itself. That's your choice. I will only want to hit you with my car if you willingly and knowingly seek to support poor breeding practices 'just because' the puppies are cute. I take that stance in defense of all the really OMGZZZ super CUTE puppies who are currently being euthanized in shelters all over the country.
Support rescue, spay and neuter your pets and ban pet stores that sell dogs/cats. Or I will send Lucy to your house to staaaarrreeee at you.

Anatomy Review:

(She did not know what the fuck I wanted from her......)

And! *Scene*

Conformation: The Structure of a Breed; The Foundation for our Love.

All purebred dogs began as mongrels. This is a simple fact- even primitive breeds like Siberian Huskies, Malamutes and Akita were once a much more varied and substantially less finessed version of themselves. Those dogs, of course, were of working origin and the prevailing opinion of this blogger is that the show ring has done a general disservice to working dogs' functionality.  But dog shows do make, in most cases, PRETTY ANIMALS with pristine coats and bright expressions (give me liver while I prance, damn you!) and at the very least are often the doorway through which future dog lovers and dog advocates enter this crazy world. So they can't be ALL bad, even if Bulldogs can't even mate unassisted anymore......

Anyhow, for small companion breeds, Chihuahuas in particular, the physical/temperamental changes that come with a concentrated breeding program have been much less severe. They do not look exactly as they did 100 years but the dog is still easily id'd as a Chi as opposed to say comparing, a Bull Terrier to its forebear. Chihuahuas were always small, they were always feisty and, upon entering the modern world, they were always coveted.
Below we see an example of a vintage Chi, a championed show dog from 1969:

And here is an example of a modern champion, the dog who went Best of Variety at Westminster in 2011:

Not really that radical of a change now, is it? Feasibly, these dogs could travel through time and space and go on to place in each others' rings. I suppose for arguments sake, from 2011, the eyes may be a little larger, the muzzle shorter and the body slightly more cobby, but there is no denying that these dogs are both Chihuahuas.

Conformation plays an important role in the world of purebreds in that it sets a standard for HOW these dogs should appear. By having a standard in place, we are able to determine which animals are the best examples and therefore the most beneficial to breed in order to create exemplary progeny. The concept  is valid in both the show and the working varieties but, as it should be, in the working world it comes secondary to a dogs ability to function and really only serves as far as the animal should be structurally sound to perform its intended task. I'd really enjoy seeing a working Border Collie owner suddenly become deeply concerned with the quantity and length of his dogs' coat, haha!

Therefore, of course, it IS a double-sided coin. When you set in place a thoroughly written account which describes in detail the ideal specimen of your breed, which will always be an unobtainable goal no matter what show people tell you, you open the floodgates of 'type' obsession. "Type" refers to that far away perfection but it seems that preferences truly go in and out of vogue as the years roll on.

An excellent example of this phenomenon is the modern show line of the German Shepherd. At some point in fairly recent history, the "flying trot" for the dog - ie the fluid gait highlighting rear end angulation while the dog is in motion - became the be all and end all of the German Shepherd. Dogs that had more of a slope to their topline (back) seemed to carry this movement more favorably in the eyes of the judges. Other handlers and breeder took note and thus, despite hundreds of years dictating something completely different, a 'type' was born.

As with all matters of aesthetic (think: corsets and plastic surgery), we humans took that idea of 'flying trots' and ran with it. Right in to the ground. And we're still digging!!!! The average show GSD now possesses a topline akin to the finest ski slopes in Aspen. Which goes appropriately with their hocks that now seem to glide horizontally around the ring like an expensive pair of Lacroix. In our perverse quest to make the perfect GSD, we have gone so far beyond the realm of reason and good sense that the current stock is no more than a weak-nerved, oversized and ridiculously shaped parody of itself.

Riddled with a laundry list of genetic issues ten miles long, the AKC show Shepherd is 'trotting' itself into oblivion. And there at least half a dozen more breeds that spring to mind who have suffered the same fate in the name of ring-side glory.

But.

I digress.

Chihuahuas, by and large, are unchanged. They are not wholly unaffected by the show ring but have not been systematically ruined. (Yet). They ARE, however, subject to a much more troublesome problem that I intend to discuss in my next post: unethical breeding practices. For as awful as I find most show bred dogs to look they are at least (usually) health tested and their genetic lineage meticulously recorded. Regrettably, the same can not be said for the booming pet store and BYB industries. But......I will leave that for my next rambling.

So, in closing, I leave you (Sophie, my one reader) with this thought:
“For every beauty there is an eye somewhere to see it. For every truth there is an ear somewhere to hear it. For every love there is a heart somewhere to receive it.”

 Ivan Panin quotes (Russian mathematician1855-1942)

Doppelgangers.

Your look-alike. Everyone has one. Some people have a lot of them. I don't know if I'd really like that my face was so popular.

Famous people often resemble other famous people. And in some cases, a caricature of someone long dead will bring to mind a still-living actor........

And sometimes, our resemblances are geared more toward fiction.......

I think we can all agree that a Doppelganger is not necessarily a flattering term.

Is this thing still here?!

I've been busy and I'm a notoriously lazy blogger so (Sophie, my one reader) apologies if updates are few and far between and occasionally lacking in interesting content or become a jumbling pile of thought from me trying to make up for lost time.

It has been a GOOD couple of weeks but hellishly busy and distracting. I'd like to say that although I never really intentionally did much training with Lucy off leash that I was thrilled and pleased with her leashless walking abilities. She was spazzing out like a douche on our last hike with Quinn (my BC/ACD/Something implacably calm mix) and kept weaving through the bigger dogs legs so I decided to experiment and let her loose. She stayed within a 3 foot radius of me at all times, for about an hour and forty minutes of walking and had excellent recall. Whenever she lagged or got distracted a quick "Keep up, Lucille!" or "Move it along, Monkey-butt" got her back up to speed =-)

I only mean Monkey-Butt in the most endearing of ways, just in case you were wondering. Anyone who has seen my youtube videos of the dogs knows they are peppered with affectionate insults and swearing. This is how I speak to them when the cameras aren't rolling....and also how I speak to everyone I care about. You precious little fucktards!

So that got me thinking. Why don't I actually train Lucy to do anything except turn oxygen into carbon dioxide?

Simply put......I don't NEED to. Not to start a flaming 'sperg war on 'working dogs' vs 'companion breeds' (although my personal opinion on the matter is that companion breeds are more versatile and just as useful as a working breed; in most cases a much more viable option as a pet and friend because what you can DO with them is actually a lot less limited and you even have the option of not doing much at all which is fine too. I shudder to think what an agility BC owner would do if they broke a leg or something and couldn't run their dog!) but I just don't have an overwhelming desire to make something of Lucy other than what she already is.


Health issues aside ( that haven't been a problem in well over a year, thank Jeebus and knock on wood!), Lucy is startlingly low maintenance. She loves strangers, her exercise requirements are nill even though she's game for whatever I do want to throw at her, her daily intake of food is made even more insignificant when compared to our other four dogs, she travels like a champ, she rarely barks, she wants to stay snuggled in her crate until 11am and if you don't want her on your lap firstly "Fuck you, why wouldn't you want me here?!" but then "Whatever, I'll find my own spot....again, fuck you." Her grooming needs are not and aside from a coat in the winter, this dog really isn't a big deal.

I generally use the above list as a reason why my husband should let me adopt a sixth dog since really, does Lucy even count, but again, it got me thinking. The off leash hike has me of two minds. On the one, clearly, Lucy is just as well behaved as I had always assumed so mission accomplished there. On the other hand though, I wonder if I have missed some golden opportunity to make a good Obedience dog or....something else 'useful'. Have I done Lucy a disservice by making her 'just a pet'?

I suppose not. She's a happy little fuck. And I HAVE trained her. I socialized the ever-loving crap out of her when she was a puppy and still technically belonged to someone else. I made sure she knew that her little ass was WALKING when we went someplace and not being toted around. I was lucky in that she had no inclinations to be carried long distances even as a baby and wanted to be able to explore so that stage went smoothly. She met dogs of all shapes and sizes. She learned what a car trip was and that her crate is the awesomest place.I introduced her to children, including my numerous nieces and nephews. She gets stupidly excited when she sees little kids now, although she has warned one of my nieces when enough is enough and we intervened on both their behalves.

A couple of days ago I had Lucy and another one of my dogs in Petsmart to pick up another crate and some replacement Kongs. At the register, they went nuts because they associate cashiers with treats and glory but the best part was a woman with 5 little kids coming up behind us! The kids were cooing and asked to pet the dogs......I didn't even have to tell the dogs to say hi, once I said "Sure, they're friendly" both rushed forward to be engulfed in luuuuuvvvvvssss. They asked her name and one of the girls got all giddy and said "MY name is LUCIA!!!!" so they bonded hard. Dogs and children were equally reluctant to part ways. We then went to our locally owned feed store to buy dog and cat food (I only go to Petsmart if I have a gift card because Yay, local business!) where the dogs thought they had surely died and gone to Heaven to get TWO cashier visits in one hour!!!!

This was a prime example of what I think the main objective is of every average dog owner. We went to a Place and my dogs didn't shame me all the way back to the car.

For someone who doesn't dream of ribbons and pride and who doesn't have a working bred dog tearing down their drywall in an effort to be Doing A Thing, what higher goal could there be? I won't lie to you my (one) reader. I would fucking ADORE to have a good competition dog some day. Some day, but not today. This isn't the right time. What I DO have are three dogs who can pretty do anything with me, one reactive dog with too much terrier for my liking that is much MUCH better than she was but still kind of a dick and one fearful dog who has come leaps and bounds but has many miles left untraveled before I could feasibly take her to a Petsmart. When I think about them, and I think about Lucy, I am so very very very very glad and grateful to have her as she is, a solid 'foundation' dog who requires so little, is so predictable and so steady. It is a comfort to know I can work with the 'problem' children, work out with the 'good dawgs' that need more exercise than she and still be confident that Lucy will remain as she is and ever was if I can't focus on her too long during that time. No soiled rugs, no chewed floor molding, no decimated shoes. Just a Lucy sleeping in a blanket until its her turn. Or time for dinner. No regal Chihuahua decorum during feeding time. Nobody's perfect.


So........ I have a well-rounded, well-behaved toy breed who is quiet, friendly and polite. She was always a good puppy but I did put some actual effort into shaping her personality. This is a dog I can comfortably take anywhere and I'm not worried about what might happen in the wrong situation. And in spite of all her good qualities, particularly being about as food motivated as a street urchin in Calcutta, when I am pragmatic on the subject, I'm not really confident in her attention span to learn specific tasks beyond Sit, Stay, Leave It and Go To Bed. And I know that *I* don't have anything else that I really need from her beyond what she already gives me.

 There are other dogs in this house that, given the time, money and ability to run an actual course (I have health problems putting a pretty sizeable block in the middle of THAT road) that I should/could/WOULD do agility with. Or flyball. Or Obedience. And they would be almost certainly better than Lucy at it and quite definitely would benefit more from being worked than she-of-the-comfy-blanket.

My Chihuahua is a pet. Only a pet. So much more, but never anything else to the outside world. And my conclusion is? That's one-hundred percent all right by me.

Do they look like a single fuck is given?

Nope.

Will I be beautiful, Mama? Will they all love me?

I must confess, I'm having a bout of malaise. It isn't a big 'smiling' period in my life. We're kind of up against some things we can't control and I've reached a point where it is either Up By My Bootstraps -or- Wallow in This Forever.

So I thought I'd do a little something to amuse myself. (Note: you should start humming "I Feel Pretty" right about now, if you know the song....)

"Do I turn you on?"

"Give us a kiss, will ya, love?"


........................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................I am so so sorry.



No living creature was harmed in the making of this post and Lucy was cleaned of her non-toxic beauty regime as soon as the pictures were taken.

Don't we all feel much better now? :D

"So let me get...to the point....Let's roll.....another tnioj.......

 ".....And turn the radio loud....I'm too alone...to be prouuddddd....." (Thank you, Tom Petty, for inspiring this post title and having your song stuck in my head for days now!)


In this world there are certain eye/facial structures that, when happy, will look stoned beyond reason, no matter what. Steve Buscemi has such a face. Lucy has such a face. There are so many unusual features between the two of them- their eyes, the way their smiles manage to look slightly diabolical and of course, the infamous choppers.

Now, I am a HUGE fan of crooked teeth. It was a dark, dark day for me when David Bowie had his fixed. However, I had not considered the creative version of dentition Lucy possesses to ever be what you would call a 'good' thing.

Chihuahuas as a breed are subject to weak, easily infected teeth. It comes from having such small jaws, with everything jammed closer together and is a plague for most toy breeds these days. Lucy's teeth are clean, very little plaque build up and she gets regular brushing. But for all of my precautionary measures, her poor breeding will out; most of her incisors are very weakly rooted and have been falling out over the last couple of years. No biggie, she still has her molars and canines and can eat dry kibble like a champ.

She is also very heat tolerant, but on the hottest of day she will pant like a regular dog. Except that it looks ten thousand times more disturbing.

So, we can couple a smirky grin, heavy lidded and slightly wall-eyed face with the opposite of porcelain veneers to achieve:

The adorably perma-baked!!!!


The Buscemi image came from some dental website advocating that he should fix his teeth lest he never play the 'hero'. Boo-freaking-hoo?

Seriously, the best thing about Steve Buscemi is that he is STEVE BUSCEMI and the teeth are part of the package. Just like Lucy. And if she loses them all, I will take endless photos of her tongue flopping impotently out the corner of her mouth and post them for all to see. Just try and stop me! *Maniacal Laughter*



Ahem.

Remembering Winter in Summer.

I can't help but think that if Steve Buscemi:

had adopted Lucy's:

attitude about snowy conditions, perhaps things would have turned out better for him in "Fargo". Food for thought.


(Buscemi image Copyright Twentieth Century Fox)