Hello Xolo

Well, we did it! As all the participants who have come on our programs since we've been going to Monte Coxala know, we fell in love with the dogs there. We don't know why ... everyone else said they were ugly, but they just really touched our hearts. When we found out Mama had babies on January 27, we told Lola we definitely wanted one.

We picked her up on March 22, and she's been getting to know the rest of her family since then. Just to give you her background: She's a Xoloitzcuintle...a Mexican Hairless Dog (pronounced show-low-EETS-queent-lee)...usually shortened to Xolo...leave it to us to get an unpronounceable dog! They are very unusual-looking dogs, but Bill and I fell in love with them when we first saw them at the Spa. And, I have to share with you what happened when we went to pick out the one we wanted. As an intro to the story, here's one description of the breed:

"Many swear they have learned more from their Xolo than any other breed, because they are so intelligent and in tune with their family, they seem to know when you are not feeling well, and stay with you, comforting you when alone or depressed."

Well, Ana called Lola at Monte Coxala to make sure we were in line to get one of the dogs, and Lola said we could come out any time and pick out the one we wanted. So we immediately went. As we drove up to the spa, the Mother Xolo was out looking at our car drive up and dancing back and forth. We thought maybe she was 'expecting' someone and was going to be mighty disappointed when we got out of the car. She wasn't...she was so excited to see us. We've been up to Monte Coxala many times with the groups and not once has this dog paid any attention to us at all. In fact, she growled at Bill once when he tried to pet her. This time, she danced all around us and jumped up on Bill as if she were so excited that we'd finally shown up. Then she led us to her pups...I knew where they were since I had taken the original picture. Lola walked out then to go in with us. No matter how Mama was acting, I wasn't about to traipse in on her pups unattended. That seemed to be asking for trouble.

Mama had given birth to seven puppies...but only four survived...2 boys and 2 girls. I, of course, wanted a girl. And, the one that Bill had picked out from his first look at the picture not only was still alive, but was a female! Meant to be!

Our little one was buried under the other female, but we told Lola not to worry about showing us the female...that was the one we wanted, and we were happy just to know she was doing well. Well, at that moment, Mama got in the bed, and pushed the other female off 'ours' so we could see her better. She then preceded to groom our pup and push her toward her nipples. Once the little one was suckling, Mama looked up at us as if to say, "see; I'm taking good care of her for you!" It was so funny!

We were going to name her Izel (EE-zel) because it means "Unique, One of a kind" in Aztec...that's how old her breed is and the name Xoloitzcuintle is an Aztec name. However, our friend Ana Kabande (FOM program director) kept asking us why we wanted such an ugly dog..."she is muy feo!" So I finally told Ana that if she didn't stop calling our dog ugly, we were going to name her Ana!!! She looked at me and said, "Ana is muy bonita!" (very beautiful) ? We thought that was the end of it until we told Ana about the name Izel...she said, "I want her name to be Ana!" Then Peter (Vita agent as well as connected to Monte Coxala) said we should have something about Coxala (COKE-sah-lah) in her name...it was only fair. So now her official name is Ana-Izela McConnauWAY-Kabande de Coxala!!! Is that too funny or what? Name's bigger than the dog. A unique name for a unique dog!

Ana-Izela has been with us for less than a month, but seems to be connecting with our other dogs, Tillie (5-year-old white terrier), Maggie (3-year-old gray poodle) and Lucky (alpha dog, 16-year-old miniature dachshund!). It hasn't always been perfect, but, being a puppy, Ana doesn't take 'no' for an answer very often, whether it's chasing Maggie around the yard, wrestling with Tillie or sleeping on top of Lucky. They seemed to have worked out the pecking order somewhat. This is good, because Ana's probably going to weigh more than the other three combined. I think she thinks she's a lap dog right now, but, hopefully, she'll get over that.

If you want to see family pictures, click here. In our humble opinion, she's a real cutie!