If you've known me or my family for a while, you may know about my 10-year-old Chihuahua named Kong. If you're new or have no idea what my pup is like, let me give you some background on him. Like a typical small dog, Kong loves to bark and run around my house. Typically, he trails behind me wherever I go, but sometimes he likes exploring all the small crevasse of our home. He also loves eating and playing with his food in the kitchen. Sometimes he even tosses it across the room! Yet, what many people don't know about my dog is that Kong is not any normal Chihuahua. He may have some of the same qualities, but upon first glance you can tell that my dog is far from ordinary.

When anyone meets my dog, they gasp at the fact that he barely has hair. He is mainly composed of dry and flaking skin and some patches of sparse white hair. Since Kong was about six or so, he started to lose his hair. It started off around his belly and gradually crept up his sides. Basically, all the hair he has left is either on his back or his head. My family and I have no clue why, but I think it has something to do with the medicine he's had to take in the past.

This leads me into the underlying issues Kong has. Besides him being in pain from his dry skin, Kong suffers from seizures and hypoglycemia. This means Kong faints, a lot. The seizures typically happen early in the morning or late in the evening. I have no idea what causes them, but I have enough education now to help him through them and ease him back to normal. As for the hypoglycemia, Kong has to be fed multiple times a day to prevent him from fainting due to low sugars. This means if he wants to eat at 12am, I have to get up and feed him. Whenever he needs food, I have to take time out of my day to feed him. Honestly, I don't mind, since his heart is much larger than mine.

Really, he has an enlarged heart! On top of all the other conditions my dog suffers from, his heart is by far the worst of them all. It pumps faster but it has to work harder since it's larger than normal. This means it's hard for him to do some things, such as walking up the stairs or going outside. Kong must be under constant surveillance, or he will get hurt. Which is why I've dedicated my life to him.

Normally, dogs dedicate all of their time to their owners. They'll do whatever it takes to make their owner happy and keep them safe. For my family and I, we've turned our lives around to keep Kong happy and safe. Therefore, a lot of our planning must be around him. We have to make sure one of us is home most of the time so he doesn't get hurt. For example, someone has to make sure he doesn't fall up the stairs or someone has to be there to let him out each hour. Even at night, someone has to sleep with him to make sure he doesn't have a bad seizure.

Living with him can be difficult, but after 10 long years with him, I wouldn't have it any other way. Even though he's pretty ugly and sick, I love my naked mole rat. He's one of a kind, and he's my best friend. Without Kong, my family and I wouldn't have made it through some of our own struggles. He makes up for what we do for him with all of his kisses and snuggles and for that I want to thank him for sticking around so long even though he's not in tip top shape. Kong's a fighter and he has encouraged my whole family to carry on. I have no idea what my life would've been like without him beside me the entire time.