"Every Single Day I Shared with Qwerty, I Told Her I Loved Her and Thanked Her for Being My Dog"

Chandra and Qwerty's Story

Dear Ken and Nancy,

There was never a more unusual, empathic, absurd, expressive, or affectionate chihuahua mix in the history of chihuahua mixes than my baby girl, Qwerty (pronounced with a hard “d” sound, rhymes with dirty). There just wasn’t, and this letter will put any dispute about it to rest. Please feel free to edit for time.

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The night she came into my life, we were unprepared. Along with five other small dogs and a couple of cats, she landed at the pet rescue I was working at in Seattle, when only hours earlier we had an emergency intake of ten dogs rescued from a hoarding situation. When I let her out of her crate, she beelined straight to me, her body low to the ground as she wagged, eager to be scooped up and held close. As the rescue was out of kennel spaces to accommodate the hoarding dogs, I volunteered to foster her that night, just as a temporary thing until we figured out a long term solution. She was called “Wasabi” by the California high-kill shelter we transferred her from. Our rescue had re-named her “Twiggy” while she was being fostered in California until she was transferred to us. In short time, I foster failed with my first and only foster attempt, and she was forever known thereafter as “Qwerty.” As in, “Qwerty keyboard.” Which we all type on every day, from texts to emails.