Don't you just hate finding something in the newspaper about an event perfect in every way for your family--the day after it has taken place?

I was excited to find news of the Chihuahua Derby, May 3, at Petco in Aurora in today's Denver Post (page 4-B). I was dismayed we missed it.

Our two Chihuahuas, Seth and Chester, would have loved attending, had they gotten the memo.

Both our Chihuahua boys are from shelters.

Seth is a rather stocky, large Chihuahua, a whopping fifteen pounds, who was found wandering a hotel parking lot in Desert Hot Springs, CA, in 2004. We were lucky to be the family who wound up at a local shelter in search of a small dog the day they brought him in. He was about a year old, shelter workers guessed, and brimming with personality.

The vet in Southern California, where we lived at the time, told us he is a real throw-back, a bigger, heavier Chihuahua, as the breed tends to be in Mexico. He is the way the breed likely appeared before AKC standards, the breed as it appeared before breeders. Desert Hot Springs is only a couple hours or so from the border of Mexico.

We were living in Castle Rock, Colorado, in 2005 when we decided our adorable Seth could use a furry companion. Our family had also fallen so desperately in love with the breed, a phenomenon common to first time Chihuahua owners, we could not resist adding another.

Chester came from a shelter in Albuquerque. He is AKC. He was dropped off with papers, so we know his exact age and details of his lineage.

Sometimes you wonder how a near perfect animal ends up at a shelter. Other times, you get to know a dog and you understand why the previous owners surrendered. Chester falls into the latter category.

While Seth, the chunky one, never meets a stranger, furry or human, and loves more than life a chance to interact with others, Chester, the AKC Chihuahua, lacks basic social skills. He sometimes does not play well with others and tends to be uptight about many things.

We love them both.

I am marking our 2009 family calendar now for next year's Chihuahua Derby. My guess is it coincides with Cinco de Mayo and that it will be held, once again, at Petco in Aurora.

Our family wants to enter our chunky Seth in the 2009 competition. He is low to the ground and might not appear to be built for speed. But, those little legs are amazingly fast, especially if someone in the family is chasing him.

I hope they will let me chase fun-loving Seth to the finish line next year. Chester, the more neurotic of the two, will be satisfied to shiver in someone's arms on the sidelines and, perhaps, snip at strangers who stand too close.