In This Chapter
- Meeting Chihuahua actors, performers, and “authors”
- Catching up with an inspiring Chihuahua
- Discovering dog stars and stars’ dogs
Tinkerbell Hilton
Hotel heiress Paris Hilton has
Tinkerbell, a Chihuahua that shares plane rides and goes to restaurants and
interviews with her. Tinkerbell was a familiar character on the old reality
show The Simple Life, and has even “written” a book, The Tinkerbell
Hilton Diaries: My Life Tailing Paris Hilton (Grand Central Publishing), as
told to D. Resin.
Bruiser
In the movie Legally Blonde, Elle
Woods, played by Reese Witherspoon, attends Harvard University with her plucky
Chihuahua Bruiser (whose real name is Moonie). Bruiser/Moonie also is featured in
Legally Blonde 2, where he’s present in the courtroom while his mistress
pleads cases!
Wheely Willy
The subject of two best-selling
children’s books (including How Willy Got His Wings [Doral], by Deborah
Turner), Wheely Willy is a real-life paraplegic Chihuahua that gets around via
a canine “wheelchair,” which allows him to move freely on his front legs while wheels
roll on behind him. Originally found abandoned in a box with a cut throat and
spinal injuries, Willy was eventually adopted by pet groomer (and author!)
Deborah Turner. She tried to rig something that would give Willie the gift of
autonomous movement, but she failed until she saw an ad for the K-9 Cart. Now Willy’s
can-do attitude inspires others as he visits hospitals and institutions around
the globe and participates in local events (he’Technical Stuff from Long Beach,
California), such as the Los Angeles Marathon and the Cystic Fibrosis Fun Walk.
Willy has also made several appearances on the Animal Planet television
network!
Gidget
Gidget, Taco Bell’s talking dog
star, retired from the advertising business in 2000 after a long and successful
career as chief spokesdog for the fast-food chain. But it seems like only
yesterday!
She played a cool-guy role and
did her own stunt work, which included riding on Godzilla’s tail, running up a
fire escape, riding a skateboard, and jumping on a taxi cab. She loved riding
in limos, and she had her own line of drinking cups, T-shirts, and talking toys.
She even had two male stand-ins! But despite all her fame, this diva was easily
pleased and willingly worked for chicken and steak bits. Ay Chihuahua!
Gidget was born December 8, 1994,
and is owned by animal trainer Sue Chipperton, who acquired Gidget as a pup and
trained her for stardom. Her expressive face appeared in a print campaign for
The Limited, and she had a “carry on” role in the movie The Fan with
Mojo
Perhaps you’ve seen the gutsy
Chihuahua called Mojo in the action movie Transformers. His name is
Chester in real life, and he’s quite the spark plug. One of his several scenes
included him lifting his leg and relieving himself on an evil transformer’s
foot!
Xavier Cugat’s Dogs
Xavier Cugat, a popular Latin
American band leader during the 1930s and ’40s, liked to take his Chihuahuas on
stage with him. He often held a Chi in one hand while conducting his band with
the other. According to a popular (and possibly true) story, he once dressed a
Chi like a baby, complete with a bonnet, so he could smuggle it into his hotel
room.
Caranza
Owen Wister, author of The
Virginian (Scribner), owned Chihuahuas. One of his dogs was named Caranza,
the Chihuahua breed’s first sire of renown. Two lines of top-winning
Chihuahuas, Perrito and Meron, trace their roots to Caranza.
Tulip
Paula Abdul, of American Idol and
pop singing fame, owns three Chihuahuas; named Thumbelina, Tinkerbell (yes,
another one), and Tulip. Just before the sixth season finale of American
Idol, in May of 2007, Abdul tore cartilage in her nose, fractured her toe, and
suffered multiple bruises when she took a bad tumble while trying to avoid
stepping on Tulip. The dog wasn’t hurt, and Abdul, although sore, finished the
season. In the process, Tulip became famous!
The Midget of the AKC corral
The first Chihuahua registered with the American
Kennel Club was a red-coated Chi named Midget, owned by a Texan from El Paso.
That was in 1904. The Chihuahua Club of America was founded in 1923 and has
thrived ever since. Mexico, however, took longer to acknowledge its own
breed. It didn’t register the Chihuahua breed until 1942.
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Don Giovanni
Do you like to read novels about
the mob? If so, would you like to read some that are suspenseful and hilarious
at the same time and, best yet, have a Chihuahua as one of the characters? Then
look for books by Laurence Shames. But don’t expect the Chihuahua in the books
to be bright, bold, or endearing. That isn’t Shames’s style.
The Chi, Don Giovanni, has traits
undesirable in a Chihuahua. Fragile, frightened, and a veritable canine
hypochondriac, he spends most of his waking seconds quivering in the arms of
Bert the Shirt, an ex-Mafioso who’s his elderly owner. But the Shirt has enough
character for both of them, and his relationship with his ancient dog makes for
funny and heartwarming reading. Alive with zany characters, packed with action,
and set in colorful Key West, Florida, Shames’s novels are among my favorites.
Two of them, Florida Straits (Dell) and Sunburn (Backinprint.com),
feature Don Giovanni on the cover.
Other Chihuahuas Associated with Celebrities
Many other Chis have mingled with
the stars and deserve recognition, too:
- Pop singer Britney Spears had two Chihuahuas, Bit Bit and Lucky, but she placed Lucky with an assistant after the dog attacked the ankles of her then-husband, Kevin Federline.
- Actress Marilyn Monroe adopted a Chihuahua she named Choo Choo in 1948.
- Victorious Mexican General Santa Ana had his Chihuahuas with him at the Alamo. In 1836, when he was finally captured, several Chihuahuas were found in his camp.
- Actress Jayne Mansfield owned Chihuahuas; one of her dogs died with her during a tragic car crash in 1967.
- Tennis great Martina Navratilova is a Chihuahua owner, and so was former Yale football coach Herman Hickman. He had two exceptionally small dogs named Killer and Slugger.
- Sharon Osbourne, wife of musician Ozzy Osbourne and reality TV maven, has a Chihuahua named Martini.
- Other famous names linked with Chihuahuas include Madonna, Rosie O’Donnell, Lupe Velez, Billie Holiday, Vincent Price, Gertrude Stein, Mickey Rourke, Anne Heche, Christine Ebersole, and Charo.
by Jacqueline O’Neil
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