A Shih Tzu puppy. More dogs on http://dogs.about.com/cs/gallery/a/photo_shih_tzu.htmA MAYOR of a small Texas city claims she took her neighbour's dog because it was being ill-treated. She admits she stole the dog, a shih tzu called Puddles, and has now resigned in disgrace.
Grace Saenz-Lopez was looking after Puddles while the Gutierrez family was on a weekend break. She fell in love with the puppy and when they returned, she told them the dog had died and she had buried him.
Three months later, however, she booked Puddles into a poodle parlour under the name of Panchito. A friend heard that the mayor had dropped off an identical dog at a local grooming parlour, the family became suspicious.
Ms Saenz-Lopez and the Gutierrez family go to court this morning to battle for custody of Puddles.
"I do not know what they will decide, but I can tell you that I did at the time what I thought was best for Panchito and what I felt was right in my heart," she wrote in her resignation letter.
Although she admitted the dogs were one and the same, she refused to hand Puddles back, and local councillors began to fear that her behaviour was becoming more and more odd. At one point, she phoned police to report Panchito missing, pointing the finger at the Gutierrezes, but the puppy was later traced to her identical twin sister's home in nearby Ben Bolt. The sister has also been charged.
Homero Canales, who represents Ms Saenz-Lopez, said at the time of her
indictment: "She loves the little dog. She told me that if she were a single woman, she would not care if she went to jail for the rest of her life before she would give the dog back."
City councillors moved this week to have Ms Saenz-Lopez ousted from the post she has held since 2003, concerned that the city of 20,000 inhabitants was attracting national news attention for all the wrong reasons.
Bowing to the inevitable, she apologised and resigned. "I am proud to have served the greatest citizens in the world, the citizens of Alice," she wrote. "It was never my intent to bring any negative exposure to our city."
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