This is Trevi, an elegant little Papillon.
I have a special affection for this breed. I always considered myself a big-dog person: little dogs were yappy, spoiled, and not "real" dogs; i thought that if i ever decided to get a dog it would have to be a German Shepherd at the very least, but ideally a Newfoundland or Great Pyrenees -- none of which are practical choices for a person in my circumstances. Then i happened upon a rescue event while visiting a friend in LA and met a Papillon puppy. And i fell in love! I came back to Chicago and couldn't stop thinking about her. I even considered flying back to LA to adopt her, but fortunately she was quickly adopted by someone else. So i started scouring the pet adoption sites in the Chicagoland area for Papillons. I finally went to an adoption event to meet a dog that was described as a "Papillon mix" (though there was a whole lot of something else in that mix) and ended up instead falling for the little dog that is now my best buddy. She's a scruffy little thing of dubious ancestry, but were it not for that first sweet Papillon i don't think i would have ever considered getting a small dog, and would probably still be dithering about whether i really even wanted a dog. Every time i see Trevi, i have to stop to admire those cascading ears, that luxurious tail, that sweet face; then i think of that little Papillon in LA that changed my thinking about small dogs and in the process changed my life.
