When I first saw a picture of Mr. Crowley,
I thought, "What a cute little dude."
His tongue was out, he was all happy.
I thought, "This could be the one."
We were not looking for a perfect dog.
We were not looking for anybody's first pick.
We were looking for maybe the one that had been overlooked.
I knew nothing about senior chihuahuas.
But there was an overwhelming number of senior chihuahuas,
specifically, near us.
The benefit of adopting a senior dog,
to me, seemed like they were more established
in who they were as a dog.
-We got a call over at the Westchester SPCA, in New York.
And they said, "Well, come see him."
You know, "Nobody's inquired about him,
and he's been here for a few months."
And I thought, "I think this is such a great match for us."
And so when we saw him, we just melted. We just melted.
Crowley had a few health issues when we met him.
-He has a collapsed trachea.
His teeth were all rotted, so they had
to get pulled out, all but two.
And he has a luxating patella,
which is something that older dogs get.
It's just a knee problem that he has. But he's not in any sort of pain.
-But that did not deter us from adopting him.
-My thought was, if we're gonna get a senior,
we're getting a senior all-in.
-After a few months, he started opening up a little bit more.
Started being more personable.
More funny.
He communicates with us when he needs to go outside.
And when he needs to eat.
He's quite clear about it.
-He rolls around on his back and starts snorting,
and putting his little paws up in the air.
And that's his way of telling us, "Hey, I want something."
There are three basic spots that he enjoys.
Being in bed, under the covers, curled up in a little ball or digging.
Sitting on the couch, under a pile of blankets.
Or he just enjoys wherever we're sitting,
sitting on our lap, just like this.
This is like, his thing.
He loves to watch me or V.J.
We call it Mom-TV or Dad-TV.
He will just watch.
-Occasionally, he will enjoy going outside in the yard for 20 seconds,
and then that's it. That's like, the extent of it on that.
I do recreationally play in a '70s and '80s cover band.
And Mr. Crowley, the song by Ozzie Osbourne,
is one of the songs that we cover.
-As soon as I heard him snorting,
and I saw his tongue hanging out, and he was wobbling,
I-- the name just popped into my head. Mr. Crowley.
And it just stuck.
Crowley loves music.
My husband is a music professor.
So music is part of our daily lives.
-And he's quite okay with that.
When I will be trying to play guitar, and he wants to crawl up on my lap.
And then it's -- that's kind of a funny thing to see.
-Today, we're here celebrating Crowley's 11th birthday
on Halloween.
We are having a rock and roll birthday party
for him today. Raquel's gonna be putting
some different types of rock and roll things up.
-We are going to put him in a Batman costume today.
He loves it.
My family's gonna be joining.
Some of our good friends are gonna be joining us
and celebrating with him.
They come here much more often now, to see him.
And I'd like to believe that it's 'cause they want to see me.
But I don't think so.
I think he's really gonna enjoy having
everybody snuggle him, and pet him and feed him.
Crowley means the world to me.
Part of the family. My grandkid. [LAUGHTER]
They've been doing so much for this dog.
They really changed his life around.
-Happy birthday to you. [SINGING] Happy birthday to you.
Happy birthday, dear Mr. Crowley, Happy birthday to you.
-Keeping with the rock and roll theme, we're making him a Meatloaf cake.
-Mashed potatoes for icing, with some peas around for decoration.
So we're really excited to see him kind of dig into that.
Happy birthday, buddy! Happy birthday!
-There's a certain stigma, that if you get a senior dog,
that you're getting sort of a broken, used dog.
But that's not true.
They're just as fulfilling as any other dog,
and maybe even more so,
'cause their perspective is a little bit different.
-I think we weren't sure what to expect when we got him.
We weren't sure if loving him meant f or three months,
if loving him meant for three years.
And the more we get to know him, the more we get to see his personality,
we just love him so much more than we thought.
My birthday wish for Crowley,
he just continues to be as happy and healthy
for as long as possible.