Couple celebrates anniversaries with dogs

BEDFORD, Texas — Carlos and Neydi Romero don’t follow the traditional rules for anniversary gifts. Instead of commemorating the occasion with paper, cotton or linen, the Bedford couple celebrates each May with fur.

They’ve been married three years and have three dogs to show for it. Their anniversary tradition went viral after Neydi’s sister Odalis tweeted about it and received nearly 9,000 retweets.

Carlos proposed to Neydi in 2013 in front of their church. Neydi, only 18 at the time, knew she wasn’t ready for children. But both of them wanted a dog.

A few days before their first wedding anniversary, Neydi received her first furry surprise.

Carlos was waiting for her in the parking lot after work with a jacket in his arms.

“He was holding it weird, like a baby,” Neydi said.

When she asked what was going on, Carlos told her to come see, and he got a “just priceless” reaction from Neydi.

“He opened it, and it was a white and black fluffy ball,” she said.

Captain became the first addition to the Romero family.

Carlos, 24, and Neydi, 21, think of their dogs like children.

Like any older child, Captain, an Australian shepherd/blue heeler mix, was reluctant to welcome the Romeros’ second dog, Teddy.

But eventually, Captain came around and now acts as a protector to his younger brothers.

Together, Carlos and Neydi decided to take Teddy, a Labrador retriever/beagle mix, into their family for their second anniversary. They found him through a Facebook page after his original owners sought a new home for him.

When they brought him home, he had tape worms, fleas and was severely underweight.

Teddy is only 20 pounds, and what Carlos wanted was a big and fluffy dog.

So for their third anniversary, they picked Chewy, a German shepherd/husky mix that came from a friend’s litter.

Chewy is named after the “Star Wars” character Chewbacca, because he has a similar growl.

He also likes to get under chairs and chew on them, Neydi said.

Neydi says she wants the next dog to be a girl. And for all those concerned, don’t worry, they plan to stop after five.

“I think five is pushing it,” Neydi said. “But I think it’s doable.”

The couple live in an apartment, but they want to move to a house.

They want to give the dogs more space — and they may add a human child to the brood in the future.

Someday, Carlos wants to buy a ranch to train shelter dogs and help them find new homes.

“That’s been a dream of mine,” he said. “I just want to save as many puppies as we have in the animal shelters.”

But until then, Carlos and Neydi have two more dogs to go, and a couple years to figure out what to gift each other on their sixth anniversary.