Best Friends FOR LIFE

Smalls

Ashley stephens And her husbAnd were not on the same page when they first met. “I’m a vegetarian, and I love animals more than anything in the world. I grew up with pets. My husband is the exact opposite,” Stephens says. “When I first met him he said he didn’t like pets, and I thought it wasn’t going to work.” So after eight years of being together, Stephens decided it was time to break the news — she was going to get a dog. She searched rescue shelters for five months looking for the perfect pup. Stephens wanted a Great Dane, but she knew she needed to convince her husband, Michael Stephens (pictured with Smalls on page 19), who had never owned a pet. In October 2012 the publicist was on her way to introduce herself to a TV network at the annual Fiesta Latinoamericana when she got sidetracked by a White Rock Dog Rescue setup. There she found Smalls, who changed her husband’s mind about pets. “It’s amazing how my husband has fallen in love with him,” Stephens says. “We can’t go to the grocery store without him buying a new bag of treats for him, even though we already have two big bags at home.”