FUZZY BUDDIES

Paw patrol

PRINT-WORTHY PETS THAT BRING PILES OF SMILES

Story by RACHEL STONE | Photography by JESSICA TURNER

Company mascot: Hampton

Handsome Hampton weighs about 130 pounds, but he’s a big baby.

“It’s funny because people think he’s like a police dog, but he just runs up to them” and wants to be friends, says Alexandra Mendez.

She wasn’t looking for a dog because she likes to travel, and she has a busy career in architecture. But she found him on her commute one day at DART’s Hampton Station.

“I thought he was the cutest dog ever, and it had been storming,” she says. “I was like, ‘This dog has to have an owner.’”

But no microchip was found, and no one claimed him after she posted about him on social media. Mendez was pleased because Hampton had quickly found a place in her home — she’d bought a house in Elmwood about two months previously — and heart.

“I love him, and he loves his new house,” she says. That was about two years ago.

Mendez has since started her own architecture and interior design firm, Create Atelier, which is based at Tyler Station. Now Hampton comes to work with her, and he has a way of keeping everyone grounded.

“Hampton is our mood manager,” she says. “He’s the softest and sweetest.”

The next time Mendez took Hampton to the vet, after they’d been together for months, a microchip was found.

“I was so sad,” she says.

But it turned out that the previous owners weren’t interested in getting him back.

Mendez is originally from Nicaragua, and she moved to Oak Cliff after finishing college in Georgia.

She and Hampton enjoy walking the trail in Elmwood, and he loves people, but the hulking floofer is afraid of large dogs.

“He thinks he’s a lap dog,” she says. “He loves playing with dogs that are smaller than him.”

Shopgirl realness: Sophia Loren

When Pamela Robison Mullins lays out one of her 3-pound chihuahua’s 30 outfits, this female dog knows it’s time to work.

Robison Mullins is a real estate agent, Airbnb host and tour guide, a photographer, painter, decorator and longtime world traveler, and she’s also a dealer at Lula B’s Antique Mall on Fort Worth Avenue.

Sophia Loren accompanies her renaissance mom to Lula B’s every Saturday, sitting comfortably all day in the crook of Robison Mullins’ arm or in a

baby sling that she wears.

“She’s so small that sometimes people don’t notice her right away, and they’ll go, ‘Oh my gosh, look at her dog!’” Robison Mullins says.

The tiny pup likes children and will let anyone pick her up.

Robison Mullins has owned many chihuahuas over the years, but Sophia Loren is the only one that is so tolerant and so chill. She’ll sit in Robison Mullins’ lap for an eight-hour car trip to Marfa with no complaints.

Sophia Loren came into Robison Mullins’ life several years ago when she was volunteering for Dallas Animal Services.

“My husband said, ‘Oh my gosh, look at this dog. She looks like a kangaroo,’” because she weighed about 1 pound, but she’s always had long legs for her breed, Robison Mullins says.

They had four other chihuahuas at the time, and her husband, retired attorney and Oak Cliff native Kayo Mullins, had doubts. But the little dog’s personality won everyone over.

Sophia Loren, now 7 years old, has her own business cards and an Instagram account (@sophiascurations). Admirers occasionally bring gifts of outfits and accessories to her job at Lula B’s, and she’s the first one some kids look for when they come through the door.

She once jumped out of a cake while dressed as Marylin Monroe, complete with a blonde wig and red lipstick, for a friend’s birthday party. And she goes everywhere with Robison Mullins, including church at Kessler Park United Methodist.

The household also includes Kayo’s 4-year-old papillon, Bandit, a 50-pound terrier mix named Sugar, and Remy, a 12-year-old chihuahua.

“He’s Mr. Grumpy,” Robison Mullins says.

Dogs can be high maintenance, Robison Mullins says. But she and Kayo have a dog sitter they trust, and they plan to resume their world travels soon with a trip to Morocco.

In the meantime, catch Sophia Loren anywhere her mom is.

“I can’t imagine my life without her,” she says.

Aerodynamics expert: Pollywog

Chelsea Wells and Bryan Lindey’s kitten came flinging into their lives this past March.

They were just leaving the Wynnewood Kroger, and on noticing the feral cat colonies there, brought up the idea of adopting a cat.

At that moment, “I thought I saw a squirrel get clipped by a truck and fly into the air,” Chelsea says.

It landed at the curb of the median on Zang Boulevard and clung to the side.

“First of all, I pulled over, and people were honking at us,” Chelsea says.

The kitten was stunned and easy to grab by the scruff. It was mouth breathing and had a little bit of blood in its mouth.

Chelsea and Bryan drove home to the Wolf Creek area and put away their perishable groceries before running the wee thing up to the vet.

“Miraculously, absolutely nothing was wrong with her,” Bryan says. “It was an incredibly close shave.”

They think the wake of the wheel just blew her back and that she was stunned when she hit the curb, maybe biting her tongue.

It turns out the introduction was appropriately sensational.

Now this kitty, Pollywog, is a total hellraiser.

She’ll play hockey with an empty tin can on the tile floor at 5 a.m. and zoom from room to room. She gets into cabinets, fiddles with reachable artwork and scrunches up the bathroom rug.

“She never stops playing,” Bryan says.

Before becoming a teacher, Chelsea worked at a nonprofit cat shelter in Chicago for seven years. She says she felt bad adopting a “normal” feline because she’s called to take in special-needs cats. But soon after Pollywog, they adopted Meelo, a shy cat the house-sitter will never see, for example, and who hid for two days after the family returned from a trip this summer.

Pollywog and Meelo are now a bonded pair who cuddle and sleep together.

Chelsea and Bryan are both teachers at Yvonne A. Ewell Townview Center. She developed a three-year creative writing program that she teaches along with freshman English. He teaches senior English.

Their blended family also has four kids and two dogs, Dover and Snow Pea.

ranger

track star: ranger

This guy was a runner.

Laurie Baker lived in a condo backing up to Stevens Park Golf Course, and there was a little black dog around that no one could catch.

Golfers and neighbors would give him bits of hotdogs and whatnot. But he was fast, boy.

“Everybody at the golf course knew him, and one day somebody said, ‘We caught that dog,’” Baker says. “It turns out Angie got him.”

That’s 80-year-old Angie Manriquez of Angie’s Friends fame. The breaker of chains and coaxer of wary street dogs has been rescuing and comforting animals in West Dallas and Oak Cliff for decades. Three of her friends started the namesake nonprofit around her advocacy, and she still spends most of her time serving cat colonies and befriending neglected pets.

“So I went and got him from Angie,” Baker says.

The next morning, Baker was having coffee in her courtyard on the golf course. She looked down, and the dog was on the other side of the fence.

“He looked at me ... and then he took off,” she says.

Baker and Manriquez spent another week chasing him all over 18 holes of the golf course.

All the golfers and neighbors knew Ranger was missing, and one day while Baker was walking the course, a neighbor said, “I’m going catch your dog today.”

“How do you know?” Baker asked.

“I just gave him two tranquilizers.”

By the time Baker had walked home for a drink of water — it was the middle of summer — the neighbor called and said he got him.

That was six years ago.

“I had another dog that got hit by a car in 1996, and I wouldn’t get another dog,” Baker says. “Until this one.”

He may have been a golf-course rover, but Ranger is a faithful companion now.

When Baker sees him outside in the yard and claps for him to come in, he’ll run and leap into her arms.

He’s still afraid of strangers but will warm up eventually, she says.

Ranger gets only homemade sourdough dog treats since Baker is a home bread-maker, and he’s always making her laugh.

“He’s not the smartest dog, but he’s so funny,” she says. “I always say he gets by on his looks.”