As is the case with many blended families, it wasn’t easy for Tristan Skye to win over his girlfriend Sicily’s young one, a fiery teacup Chihuahua known as Cleo to friends, Cleopatra to admirers.

“We’ve kind of joked around about how she’s kind of like my stepdaughter,” Tristan Skye says. “It took a little bit of work because she didn’t take so well to me at first — she liked me, but she’d still be very territorial and very protective of my wife. But Sicily just said that it would take some time, and it did, and now we’re very close.”

The couple adopted a Pomeranian named Vinnie a year ago, who was supposed to be their last dog. However, after unsuccessful attempts to add a human baby to their family, an angel in the form of a five-week teacup Chihuahua appeared to help alleviate their disappointment.

“She’s kind of fulfilled us in so many way as far as the emptiness we felt without having the child yet,” Skye says of the puppy they named Glitter. “The new one really feels like our baby, and we’ve bonded a lot with her, especially. The other two, we love them to death and they’re definitely our family, but the little one acts very childlike, and it’s kind of strange. It’s the first time in my life I’ve felt that close to an animal, but it’s really cute actually, I kind of feel my nurturing side coming out.”

Glitter was also there to care for Tristan Skye, a transgender male, during his recent trip to Florida for chest surgery.

“We could only take two dogs and so we took the two smallest, Cleo and Glitter, and them being there added a lot to my experience because I was very much confined to the condo and couldn’t leave,” Skye says. “Dogs, they really do just understand. There’s almost this spiritual connection that you have with them, and it’s like they knew that I was hurt so they cuddled with me, and they were very careful.

“They can be kind of bouncy sometimes and I was a little scared that if they bounced on my chest that would not be a good day, but they were so careful and it’s like they knew I was hurt there and would just lay in my lap or cuddle with me,” he says.

Skye has been a lifelong pet lover because his cats and dogs always accepted him even when the rest of the world didn’t.

“It is that kind of unconditional love that we sometimes lack in our human society,” Skye says. “I feel like in the animal society, they actually have a love that is beyond our own, and I really couldn’t imagine not having an animal in my life because I really feel like they make my life a lot better.”

Top photo: Tristan, Sicily and Glitter