My husband and I got Lacey in July of 2006 from a breeder in Wisconsin. I really wanted a puppy and knew I wanted a small dog that wouldn't shed much. I started researching breeds and found out about Poodle Mixes. The more I read about them, I knew that they were the right choice for us. I started looking for breeders in the area and found a breeder online that had a booth at our local Flea Market on the weekends. My husband and I decided to go and check it out the next weekend.

The breeder had Shihpoos, and Yorkipoos listed online. We found the breeder's booth but they didn't have either Shihpoos or Yorkipoos at the time. There was another breeder's booth next to them that had a cage with three small black and brown dogs in it. They were all sleeping cuddled together and looked so adorable. I stood there and watched them for a couple of minutes. Then my husband wanted to go look around at other things so we walked away. The more I thought about them the more I knew I had to have one. I dragged my husband back over to them and stared at them some more. I told him I wanted the one on the right. Then the lady working the booth came over and told us they were Chipoos (Chihuahua- Poodle mix) and that there were two boys and one girl in the cage. I told her I wanted to see the one on the right. It turned out to be the girl. I held her for a while. She was so small and loving. She cuddled in my arms and fell asleep after only a couple of minutes, I was hooked. A few minutes later we were paying for her and taking her home.

I held her all the way home. We stopped at Petco to buy her food, toys, treats, a cage and other needed supplies. She slept in my arms almost the entire time we walked around the store. When we got her home I put her down in our kitchen to let her explore. She was still a little wobbly on her feet as she walked around investigating everything in her new home. Then she found our shoes and their laces. She would not stop playing with them. We would move the shoes but she would go right back for more. That is how she got her name, Lacey. Even today she still loves to play with shoe laces if you let her.

We had Lacey for about 3 weeks and we realized she needed a friend. So we started looking for another Chipoo around our area but we couldn't find any. We were able to find a litter of them in southwest Missouri that were about 10 weeks old. There were 3 girl Chipoos and two boy Chipoos in the litter. We decided to get one of the boys, Napoleon was the name the breeder had given him. We paid for him and made the arrangements. He would be flying into O'Hare airport on Thursday August 31, 2006 at 7:45am. I woke up that morning very excited and eager to go get our new puppy. I checked online to find out if his plane was on time only to find out that his flight had been cancelled. I was terrified. What happens to a puppy whose flight was cancelled? Luckily, he was put on the next filght and made it to us safe and sound. We picked him up at the airport at about 10am that morning. When we first saw him at the airport counter, he was terrified. He was huddled in the very back corner of his travel cage and wouldn't move for anything. We took him out to our car and set the cage down in the trunk to open it up to let him out. He didn't move. We finally took of the top of the cage so we could see him. I didn't want to reach in and pull him out for fear it would only scare him more. He finally warmed up a bit and we got in the car to take him home.

My husband held him all the way home. When we got him home we put Lacey in the other room so Logan could investigate his new home on his own. Later, when we let Lacey out to meet her new friend she ran up to him and wanted to play right away. Logan was still a bit unsure of his surroundings and didn't want to play just yet, but in a few hours they were playing, running and wrestling together. Then they both went to sleep the same doggie bed. It was adorable. They became best friends almost instantly.

That is the story of how I got my two wonderful dogs and how they totally won over my heart.