Of Laser Shooting Dinosaurs, Spock, Unicorns and Mirchi, The World's Coolest Chihuahua.

So a while ago Putin was photographed shirtless riding - something. We're not entirely sure what the original animal being ridden was. But the photo circulated 'round the web-o-sphere and all across the world meme-makers lit up like little kids on Christmas morning. It started with bears, then devolved into other animals...

We're pretty sure this is photoshopped. Or that's one BIG kitty.

And finally just circled the drain entirely and went into bad puns. 

Putin on the Ritz, get it?

But no matter how ridiculous they got, the interwebs just ate these memes up. Nom nom nom. No one could get enough of Putin riding things. Which gave us an idea. See, for the past eight months we have had in our possession the coolest of cool dogs, a spunky, fun, friendly little chi named Mirchi. 

Yes, I am that cool.

Mirchi might be the best dog ever. He's housebroken, adores other dogs, even knows how to use a dog door. But he's a small tan chihuahua in a state up to it's ears in small tan chis. As we have absolutely no issue shamelessly exploiting internet trends to get people to see how fantastic our dogs are, why not go with a proven winner? If it worked for Putin, could it work for Mirchi? 

The brain engines started turning away....

Please make the man on my back put on a shirt. 

But the thing is that Mirchi is a big enough personality that he doesn't need to have a controversial world leader perched on top of him. This is an adorable little pooch who loves to steal towels from the laundry basket to make himself into a canine burrito. He's got enough charisma to carry his own show. If anything, we should reverse the roles here... 

How do you like it, buddy? 

In fact he doesn't even need world leaders. This is a dog that figured out a dog door in a half hour by watching his foster brother go through it. A dog that likes to do zoomies with big pooches and little pooches - he's not intimidated by dogs ten times his size. No, little Mirchi can own even the fiercest meme all by himself.

I love to play with big dogs but this is a bit much. 

But lest we make him sound too too fierce, he's also a world class snuggler who is so smart that he aced Beginning Obedience. At heart he's a diplomat who embraces everyone, from kids to adults, with equal aplomb and lots and lots of kisses.

RIP, Leonard Nimoy. Much respect to a good man. 

In fact he's so good he's magical.

All gimmicks and theatrics aside, Mirchi is a great little guy who's been looking for a home for way too long. Even without the aid of photoshop*, he sparkles. If you're in the market for the best dog ever, come meet him. If you're not, spread the word.

(Unicorn, dinosaur and world leaders not included with adoption).

*Photoshop that was made possible by awesome-sauce volunteer Anjelica Martinez Photography who took the some of the pics and made the memes. Also kudos to Elizabeth Laverty for her cool-Mirchi pic! Thank you!

Monchichi: Munchkin or Myth?

(Update: Monchichi has been ADOPTED! WOOT! But you should read this anyway)

Monchichi

Where do I begin? Monchichi. Let's start with the name. This ridiculous little cat got it's name from this...

Monchichi name origin.

I actually did not know what the heck this was, but thanks to the endless bounds of the internets, I learned. Apparently it was this really popular monkey doll, that also had a short burst of a television show in the '80s. Well, staff thought that our cat bore a resemblance...

 I suppose I can see there is a likeness, but frankly there is so much more in a small way about this cat. I had to do some major double takes and zoom ins...

 

Is that? What I think it is? A Munchkin breed cat?! In a shelter?! No way!

Munchkin as in...

No. Munchin as in this...

I seriously couldn't believe my eyes, but it's real! It's like the unicorn of cats, but with super short legs, and nothing but head rubs, and loud purrs! 

Oh my gawrd, I wants it!

If you don't trust these photos, well then, check out this video of Monchichi...

 Click here for Monchichi video!!!

Okay. We've gawked at the tiny itty bitty legs of our Monchichi, but now it's time for y'all to come in and adopt this very nice cat. I can tell you he's a freaky cat in more than one way. He lets you rub his belly! YES! Full belly rubs with no swats of anger or vengeful scorns, just all purrs. No joke, this cat is a gem. Please come on down, Bob Barker style, and ask to meet this cat!

Tell Your Friends: We're Waaaay Better Than Poking Yourself In The Eye With A Fork

We know, we know. You love us. You can't get enough of our dogs, our cats, the occasional silliness, the heartwarming stories, the pictures of bulldogs in thongs. 

We get it. And we love you too. 

We also know you try so hard to tell your friends about us to no avail. Shelter media has a terrible reputation. The gut wrenching pictures, the lecturing, the sad stories, the imploring you to do something. Probably when you tell your friends they must check out this blog or that Facebook post, they smile uncomfortably. When you tell them you love our stuff, they look at you as if you just admitted appreciating a good root canal or enjoying poking yourself in the eye with forks. 

We're here to help. In the interest of clearing up some misunderstandings, we set up a quick list of five talking points (with helpful illustrations) for you to reference during those awkward conversations about us. 

I hope you find the socks amusing. Because I don't.

1) We are puppy-in-socks cute. We're way cuter than those content sites that use adorable pup photos to get you to look at ads.  And we won't make you look at ads for anything but MORE cute animals. Hello, win!

Like a cotton ball in a windstorm...

2) We are wickedly happy. Like 'Astro showing off his new haircut' happy. Silly happy. Why? Because we have the best pets and that will make anyone happy. You'd be happy if you had a great pet.* And our dogs are SO awesome they deserve happy homes. Happy attracts happy.

Hi, I'm Otis. Nice to meet you. You should throw this. 

3) We're friendly. We're 'Otis trying to entice you to play with his ball' friendly. We're not going to lecture you or talk down to you or make you feel stupid. If you have questions, we'd love to answer them. Circle of trust. No judgies. Ask away.

Look! They made the weather better for me! 

4) Best pet photograhy on the web? Us. We have the best volunteer photo squad EVER.* Not only do they take great pictures, they edit and fine-tune them to make sure you see everyone in all their natural beauty. Love looking at great pet pics? This is the place.

Ppphhhhhtt!!

5) We take saving animals very seriously. We do not, however, take ourselves very seriously. 

And we're super, super good at saving pets. Curious? Check out our Annual Report video below. If the widget is being pesky, it's also right here. All those cool folks you see holding signs and talking? That's us. 

* Have we mentioned we can help you with the 'needing a great pet' thing? 
** Jackie Mac, Malcolm, Elizabeth, Anjelica, Kate - we're talkin' about you. 

Operation Nom Nom

The cats of HSSV have been concocting a naughty little plan.
As of course, all cats are entitled to do.
Follow them through their adventures and see what they're up to!
Only cat collaborators may read this, so put this song on asap.

Admiral April
Roger Alpha Tango Charlie. Operation Nom Nom is "A-go"

Please respond confirmation.

Roger that, we are on the move. This is Ollie over and out.

Felines, the coast is clear. Let's make our escape.

Go for the silver mechanical cat tail on the door.

I have seen the HU-MANS use it to get out.

It smells strange. I don't know if this is gonna work April.

Zoey
Ehh, who cares about leaving. I need to practice my yoga.

What? I can't work on my "child's pose"? Leave me out of this mission!

 
Rocky and Oxford
Now is da time to strike Zoey. You fool! 
We are setting forth to grab da wet food! All da wet food!
That's the entire point of this mission!

 The time is meow! Let's go felines!

Negative, Negative! The bird has found the nest. 
REPEAT! The bird has found the nest.
Fall back felines!

Uhh, I told y'all this was haphazardly hatched.
We seriously need to concoct our plans better.


It seems our cats' plans have been foiled by us pesky HU-MANS.
Their attempts to gorge on delicious wet food ain't occurring today.
Well alas, they'll have to wait patiently for their next time to strike!

*All cats in this blog have found their forever homes! Yay!
Operation Nom Nom will continue on the home front.
We do still have many naughty cats that are plotting their entry into your home.
Come on down and meet them! Click on this link to see who's going home with you.

Dancing With The Paws: The HSSV Pooches Give Riverdance A Try.

Remember Micheal Flatley? Riverdance?

The chest, the makeup, oh my...

The Elvis costumes, the bare chest, the weird headband - how could we forget? While all of that might have gone the way of the mullet (leaving numerous Irish American children who had been forced into dance lessons breathing a collective sigh of relief), Irish dancing is still alive and well.

Which is a good thing as there's very limited ways for dogs to celebrate St. Patrick's Day. For obvious reasons, the whole green beer thing is out. 

Bad idea for pooches. And most people. 

Searching for four leaf clovers could be a valid alternative except for two things: Picking them without thumbs is very hard. And any that might happen to be in our dog park are likely to have a little dog wee on them. Ick. 

Those might have a little dog wee marinade on them...

So that brings us back to a good old green jigfest in the dog yard. Which our dogs do pretty much every day, the difference being that today we're dedicating it to Irish culture. 

Mirchi, despite being a breed of dog that hails from Mexico, kicked it off. He did super well on the two off the floor part of the jig thing but couldn't get the big smile down. We give him a six for effort and wearing a green collar. 

Check my flow...

We thought Stevie, whose scruff reminded us of Scotland, might do better. After all, it's still kind of Celtic right? He nailed the paw off the ground thing and killed it on the rakish facial expression. A solid eight. He's two points away from a headband, a bedazzler and a Broadway show. 

Why hello ladies ....

Next up was Otis. Who nailed it on the smiling but we could not, for the life of us, figure out what he was doing otherwise. 

Blllleeeeeaaaarrrrrgggghhhyyy!!

We'll make it a six to account for him being a big clumsy puppy who's 98% paws and ears right now. 

A six? Really? But I got some air....

Keep trying, big guy. You'll grow into those monster paws. You just need to watch the ears a little. 

Next up was Jeffrey. He was adopted shortly after this was taken but after Stevie's barnstorming performance we were holding out big hope for the scruffnugget contingent. 

Kiss me, I'm possibly part Scottish breed!

Again, a nice job on getting the paws up but the tongue kind of ruins it. You're trying too hard, Jeffrey. But a solid seven. 

I'm sorry but you need to sign my tour rider first...

Before the camera was even on, Alfie began making crazy, diva-ish demands. He wanted his own trailer with a white sofa (and that black fur? Eeeek), even special guacamole made from his own recipe. While we respect everyone for being a performer, we had to put the kibosh on that. 

With so many great contestants it was hard to pick one winner but we feel the paws down winner was....

Can I try the green beer now? Please??

Mr. Mustache. Was he the best dancer? Oh heck no. But for the love of all things good, LOOK at that face and those paws. You could overdose on the adorable. 

All this dancing was also in celebration of our Lucky 17 promotion. With a Friday the 13th and St. Patrick's Day falling so close to each other, some of our luckiest pooches (and cats and bunnies) are hoping to get lucky with an adoption fee of only $17! You can check out the lucky bunch here. 

Some of the staff dogs (and Mirchi) got a little jealous about all the fun so they decided to try out a group dance number complete with special leprechaun booties. While none of them did it particularly well, the result was an adorable train wreck too hysterical to be missed. 

Happy St. Patrick's Day to you and your pets from all of us at Humane Society Silicon Valley. And if you want to help a shelter dog get lucky, you know where to find the best ones. 

Cheeto's Gonna Give You The Real Cheese And A Zinger Or Two.

What happens when our pets get adopted?
What does it look like when they're in their forever home?
Well, wonder no further. We'll take you on a tour of one cat's journey into their home.

Chester aka "Cheeto" was a cat that stayed in our shelter for a bit.

Yeah, that's me as Cheeto-cat, what of it?

Many people looked at him. And why not? He's absolutely gorgeous...

 I mean would you look at the markings on that tail? 

And that sassy face, oh my gawrd!

He was adopted twice and returned twice. Why? 

Well, sometimes things aren't meant to be, but that doesn't mean he isn't a wonderful cat. I mean we all thought Brad and Jennifer were forever, but things happen. And sometimes Angelina happens to you, like it did to Mister Cheeto.

He doesn't like living with other cats, okay. And in the holy name of Starbucks and all things caffeine producing, he must have a roof over his head that's cat friendly. Fair 'nough.

Cheeto is now in his perfect home and of course one of our own staff fell in love.
Third time was the charm for Cheeto.
But Cheeto does have one thing to say to those that were scared off by the "returned" animal stigma.

Big mistake.  

Returned animals aren't broken. Sometimes things just don't work out. It's all about finding a balance. Making a match that works for you and for the animal.

And for Cheeto, oh he found his home all right. And he found it good.

Purr Purr

He knows the meaning of cat planking. This is where you're a cat and you sleep on the upper edge of the couch. Also known to cats as "The Couch Cliffs". It is both fun and slightly awkward. 

CLASSIC.CAT.PLACE.

Cheeto understands though that one must earn one's keep...

Helping contribute to laundry chores is a must in his new house. He is an avid laundry helper and will do a thorough scan of the laundry machine for potential laundry monsters/elves or any creatures in between. Also smelling smelly clothes is so weirdly satisfying. *Sniff Sniff*

When the chores are said and done it's time to get that gamer cat on...

Cheeto likes to assist his human friends by giving moral support whilst they play League of Legends (LOL). It's a multi-player online battefield arena (MOBA) game.  For those of you not super video game savvy or who most likely enjoy natural sunlight/go outside and hike like in those REI commercials, then let me fill you in. All you need to know is it's like capture the flag, but with awesome little champion avatars, and yeah, you can kill the other team. Cheeto often finds himself screaming "Go for the Penta kill" or "Good job, man, good job". Frankly though, it's all about dat warm laptop. Cheeto considers it his personal heater.

Sometimes Cheeto realizes his mum and dad go on little trips and he decides to pack himself.

What do you mean I'm not TSA approved? My nails are trimmed!

And then just to prove what a wicked cool cat he truly is, Cheeto puts on his harness and goes for a walk.

Yep, you heard me. He goes for some cat walks outside. And he loves it! He likes breaking boundaries and showing off how totally sick it is to walk a cat outside.  

But truly those boots were meant for walking.

At the end of the day, it's all about the cuddling and warm lap time...

Cheeto's momma and poppa couldn't be happier with their baby. Everything worked out for the best. And just remember returned isn't broken, because you can't break da purrs of love. Open your heart to an animal and you'll be surprised in what you find...