Vince found a treat Mimi and Trudy respond to. The only problem is we had to go through about 5 different brands. While he was out Friday, he picked up a couple of shirts for the girls. They’ve been running around naked since Christmas.

I shot this using a green screen for the first time, so this was a good test. I clearly need to get way better lighting.

Mimi is smaller than her sister and they never finish eating at the same time. I’m trying to teach Trudy not to eat Mimi’s food. This video shows why. Mimi growls and snaps at Trudy as her bigger sister tries to muscle her way into Mimi’s bowl.

Just a few minutes ago I heard tiny howls coming from down stairs. I’m trying not to reward that behavior with attention, so I slowly peaked over the upstairs banister and saw little Mimi’s jowls puckered up in a tiny “O” just howling. I shot this video earlier today of Mimi exercising her newly found bark as she meets Saphy Waffy Babowski.

I took Mimi and Trudy to the vet this morning for their third round of shots. Trudy weighs in at little over 3 pounds. Mimi is a little over 2 pounds. I learned from the doctor that Mimi has a health issue. He said there is a 40% chance that her soft spot on her skull would completely heal. That means either she’ll have to walk around with a chihuahua sized helmet on, or we’ll have to baby her for the rest of her life. We’ll know more when she’s about 4 months old.

I’m a very bad daddy. Last night, while I was holding Trudy in the bathroom, she wiggled a bit, and I dropped her. We have solid concrete floors, so she literally went splat on the floor! Both Vince and I were stunned. She started yelping and hollering, and I immediately held her in place comforting her thinking we were about to have to go to the vet.

Vince scolded me good. Luckily, she quieted down and then started running around again. We watched her for a bit after that, and it was as though it never happened.

Ms. Mimi took a bath last night. Potty training has its ups and downs. Yesterday when we came home there must have been about 4 pee puddles and 3 poopies on the bathroom floor. In our presence, and with attentive commands and rewards, they do use the litter box. As we stay with them, they also use the litter box on their own.

We’re considering reducing their space in the bathroom at night to encourage more involuntary use of the litter box. We’re both nervous and eager for any advice.

Vince drove about three hours to pick them up, and now they’re here. Mimi and Trudy are 9 week old chihuahua puppies. We’re trying to train them to use a litterbox, so they will spend a few days in our bathroom. The cats are very curious about what’s going on in that particular sector of the kittydom.

UPDATE 12-09-07 10:57am - I added another video this morning. This one shows them giving some love to Vince and some shots showing them denning with their crate. Litterbox training is still not working with Trudy. Mimi is starting to more and more after being rewarded with some treats.