Tony and the black cat (below) are total BFFs. Black cat (”Kitty”) now comes to hang out with Tony whenever he’s outside. Kitty pretends to be annoyed with Tony when he attempts to play with her, but she always comes back for more.

This is a neighborhood cat who is mildly interested in Tony. Tony is wildly interested in the black cat. So far, they’ve kind of touched noses, but I pulled Tony away pretty quickly as I could easily see that cat kicking Tony’s ass all the way to Queens. Here, they’re doing a fast circle concerning a piece of fried chicken out of the frame. (The chicken was claimed, and eaten, by the cat.)

Tony fully enjoyed his first trip to Nebraska, and really, really liked playing with Fergus (even when - or maybe especially when - Fergus didn’t really want to play). I’m sure that Tony is now counting the days to the next trip to visit his newest best friend. And at a little over 10 months old, he’s a relatively well-traveled dog: Tony has been on buses, subway trains, commuter trains, cars, and airplanes. (I bet he’s booking his next flight right now.) He’s also now experienced just about all weather, and took surprisingly well to the snow and ice that covered most of Lincoln during our stay. I’m sure that Fergus had something to do with it - Tony seemed to look up to him just like a big brother (and how else could you explain a chihuahua running around on snow, at 20 degrees F?).

Tony’s already bored back here in Brooklyn… even after a trip to the dog park this afternoon.

(Although he did get some pretty serious humping action going on with that adorable French Bulldog.)

Tony got to meet his brother Fergus last night, and the two of them played for close to 6 hours straight. They are bonkers for each other!

This last week, Tony has helped to increase Tessa’s reading comprehension by over 200%.

So - it’s finally gotten cold here in NYC, and Tony is unwillingly experiencing every freaking freezing moment of it. Here’s how he’s coping:

With his new Snoozer Cosy Cave, which he at first treated like a giant toy, and then quickly grew to love as a shelter, as it provides him with a much needed, warm cave-like dwelling. Apparently, Chihuahuas are burrowing creatures, so this thing seemed appropriate.

When it’s gray outside, it’s time for gray clothing! Here’s his cable knit sweater that he wears on rare occasion. He actually seems to think wearing the sweater is punishment, as he has associated it with going outside in the rain and cold. However, he gets lots of compliments on it, and he looks darn handsome in it!

And here is his favorite thing to do in the fall: lay on someone (especially Tessa) while said someone eats pumpkin pie (you can just make out the oven mitt Tessa is using to cradle her bowl of excess pumpkin pie filling directly after coming out of the oven).

This is Tony’s first chew that was bigger than him. He’s still working on it, but has got it down to a more manageable 4 or 5 inches. However, it’s taken him about three weeks, which is 2 weeks, 6 days and 23 hours longer than it takes him to fully consume a regular spiral chew.