Silas, a 140-pound Newfoundland, is safe and sound at his home in Canada thanks to his best buddy — a 5-pound Chihuahua named Carly.
It was Carly’s frantic barking Saturday night that got the attention of their dog mom, Sharon Dooling. About a minute before, she had let the dogs out in the backyard of their St. John’s home in, appropriately enough, Newfoundland and Labrador.
When Dooling opened the back door to check on the commotion, she saw that a strange man had put a leash on Silas and was dragging him down the driveway.
“I said, ‘Excuse me, what are you doing?'” Dooling told CBC News. “He told me he’s taking his dog and I said, ‘No, you’re absolutely not.'”
Furious, Dooling ran after the dog thief…and punched him in the face.
“That’s the only thing I could think of,” she told CBC News. “I’m little, I’m a little tiny person and this guy was around 5’8, 5’9, and there was no way that I was going to be able to wrestle the dog out of his hands.”
She grabbed Silas and the man took off, running down the street.
The next day, Carly barked at anyone who passed by the house.
“Never underestimate the power of a yappy Chihuahua,” Dooling told CBC News. “It’s an inconvenience or a nuisance, you could say, when she does bark, but she’s my guard dog.
“Some people have big Dobermans — I have a Chihuahua.”
There have been several recent attempts to steal dogs from their yards in that area, the Royal Newfoundland Constabulary reports on its Facebook page. Anyone with information is asked to call the constabulary.
Incidentally, friendships between huge and teeny dogs like Silas and Carly aren’t all that uncommon. For example, meet two Chihuahuas and their BGDFs (best giant dog friends).
Photo via Twitter