My Ticket to Heaven...I hope!

Soni Melgar

I am a lover of all things animal... except I hated Chihuahuas growing up! My aunt had a spoiled “herd” that nipped and barked at everyone. Not only did I fail to see why anyone would have such “beasts”, I swore I would never own one.

Fast forward 20 something years to a busy intersection in East Los Angeles. There I was minding my own business, on a lunch break, sitting in my car at a red light, in the midst of driving around looking for some good fast food, when this little scraggly, white, skin and bones thing with a broken antennae for a tail wanders into the street and gets itself run over.

It did a few tumbles and landed “teets up” and deathly still not 2 feet from my front bumper. In tact but lifeless, I couldn’t bear the thought of it’s little body being squashed like a bug on the busy street, so I put my car in park, retrieved an old beach towel from the back of my car, and went to pick it up and place it at the curb.

As I picked it up it began to gurggle and on closer inspection I saw that it was foaming and bleeding from the mouth and had one eye sort of popped out of the socket. “Now what do I do?” I thought, I couldn’t just leave it so I put it in the back seat of my car and immediately called my daughter to help find a vet to take it to who could mercifully facilitate it’s trip to the promised land. As she made the calls I started to franticly drive, hoping to find one nearby.

As I drove I checked in the back seat and to my surprise it was coming to and trying to upright itself. “Oh my God!” I told my daughter, “find a vet fast, I don’t want it to die in my car!” The next thing I new it was opening it’s eyes and dazedly looking at me and it’s surroundings. “Oh jeez! I implored my daughter, help me find a vet!”

Multiple phone calls and rejections later, there I was at my vet in Newport Beach carrying it in, having broken most land speed records and traffic rules to get there.

No broken bones, slight concussion, eye placed back in it’s socket, IV and antibiotics administered and on the mend it ,stayed at the vet’s for a few days- refusing all food but bean burritos. I was then sent home with a 4 pound sack of bones covered by a very sparse brittle coat and horribly red, irritated patches of skin with the most pathetic but thankful look I’d ever seen, and an arsenal of medications.

After full mending came neutering and the pulling of most of it’s teeth due to severe infection. The vet determined that it was about 10 years old and had probably been on the street most of its life, breeding other little its!

“It” became Louie V (from La Puente), and although still not anything but sad to look at, I have become his human, who he guards at all costs. Beware anyone that comes near me in the “fruit bat’s” (as he is affectionately, among other things, called by my family and friends) presence! With all four of his snaggle teeth barred he is an imposing presence.

Snuggled up on my lap, though, with no other redeeming value except his complete devotion, affection, and appreciation, I accept him for who he is smelly breath, persistent cough, snoring and all, rejecting the same looks of disdain received from family and friends I used to give my aunt, and see that great gifts come sometimes in not so obvious packages.

And yeah, just maybe, he may be my ticket into heaven.