Introducing....Skippy

Are you sitting down? Great...let me introduce you to the newest member of our family: Skippy! She is named after Skippyjon Jones, the Siamese cat who thinks he is really a Chihuahua (a picture book written by Judy Schachner).

Skippy is a 2 year old Chihuahua who desperately needed a loving home after being dumped in Khobar by what we speculate to have been an abusive family.

Yes, Jacob is still allergic to cats and dogs. But he wanted a dog so bad that he was all set to start allergy desensitization shots when we got here. The local allergist had no qualms about arrogantly telling me what he really thinks about the situation: He believes the shots are immoral and totally unethical unless you are a vet or other professional that works with animals. He then continued on about the "fact" that the allergists in the U.S. are in the back pockets of the pharmaceutical companies, and that's why they "push" the allergy shots. After controlling my white-hot rage, I realized that day that medical ethics are not the same everywhere as I had always assumed, but instead are probably unique to each culture. We have had some absolutely outstanding allergists in Washington, Maryland and Michigan and I don't believe for a minute that they are in any one's back pocket. But I digress...

We put everything on the back burner until we came back to the states this summer. After consulting and testing for several hours, our allergist in Washington State gave us the green light to bring a dog into our family, with the following conditions:

• The dog MUST be kept out of Jake's room at all times. (easy enough to do - we'll learn to keep his door closed)
  
• The carpets and tile must be vacuumed 2-3 times a week. (they already are)
  
• Jacob may need to stay on Zyrtek, with the possibility of backing off it slowly. (He takes it most of the year anyway, due to other environmental allergies)
• It should be a small dog, and one from the hypoallergenic list is preferred.
• The dog should be trained to stay off the furniture, or get leather furniture (I voted for buying new leather furniture, but the keeper of the family finances said to do the training)

After returning to Saudi in August, we started putting the word out that we were looking for a small dog, preferably NOT a puppy. Last week, Skippy was put up for adoption through the Saudi PAWS organization. Jake spent some time with a Chihuahua this summer and didn't have any issues, so we pursued her even though she's not on the "hypo-list."

Skippy is house trained, energetic and has the sweetest little disposition. She doesn't bark unless someone comes to the door, and she hasn't nipped AT ALL. She is very trainable - we almost have her trained not to get on the furniture or beds unless we've invited her to sit on our laps. Maybe a couple more days...

We've had her exactly one week now and so far Jake has done fine, the exception being the time that he allowed Skippy to stick her nose in his eye (don't ask why...). He holds her and plays with her, but we remind him to not let Skippy lick him. Thankfully she's not much of a licker. She does love taking walks, chewing dried pig ears (can you believe we were able to get them here, but I can't get bacon?), being held, being included, and just being loved.

We've all hoped we'd be able to have a dog for a long time - it's been a decision we didn't take lightly. We know that being good pet owners takes a lot of time. Living here with the laid back schedule gives us the extra time we needed to not only be good owners but also diligent about the allergy issues. It's a HUGE emotional risk for both the dog and us - we know that. However, no amount of time spent in other people's homes with other people's dogs and other people's cleaning habits would predict how Jake's allergies would do in our own situation. We decided to go for it...wish us luck!