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 It was a beautiful day in Oct. when my husband came home from work, carying a wonderful squirming puppy in his arms. Someone that works for the company had 8 pups in the parking lot. Giving them away for free. By the time my husband left work, there ws only one left.
I was thrilled, as was our son Jeff. It had been a year since we had to have our other beloved dog put to sleep because of old age. He was 16. I got pretty lonesome at home all day with my husband working and Jeff in school.
Jeff wanted to name him Nikki, so Nikki it was. And if i was bored staying home all day before, I wasn't anymore! Potting training him was the first on the list. But Nik (short) was smart and it wasn't long before we were well on our way.
When the snow started flying, Nik and I would go out and play in the snow. I'd take my foot and kick some on his nose, and he would take his nose and kick it right back to me! We had so much fun.
As he grew, I showed him how to sit-up, shake hands and how to heal.
By the time he ws 3 he got a bad habit... Stealing!!! Anything from the remote control, to tools out of the tool chest of a repairman! He once stole my sisters wallet right out of her purse when she came to visit. (at least he knew the right thing to steal!) But he nver took off with them. He always gave them back.
By then I had showed him how to get the paper out of the tube at the road side and bring it back home all by himself. I always gave him a treat when he did that. It sure came in handy when it was snowing or raining, as we live about 200 ft. from the road. But then he started to make a second trip up there and take our neighbors paper out of their tube and bring it home!!! Stealing again!
The funniest thing he ever stole was when Jeff was a Junior in high school.
We were all watching a program on TV, when in walks Nikki with a paper in his mouth.
"Now what do you have Nik.. give it to me" He trots over to me and gives me the paper. I open the paper and glanced at it and smiled. Then I started to read....
"Dear Jeff
I miss you so much.....
I love you... when can I
see you again......."
Well you never saw a boy jump up so fast in your life!!! You can bet that Jeff kept his bedroom door shut after that. We still tease him about that to this day.
Nikki always barked at the UPS truck when they delivered packages. I always tried to bring him in when i saw them coming. One day we were out in the yard when UPS rolled in. I met him and introduced Nikki to him. They got along fine as he like dogs and had a few himself. About a month later we got another delivery, As always Nik barked and I brought him in. I waited until he left, then told Nik that we'd go out to get the package. So out we go and i had to laugh. Well Nik.. Looks like we both got a package... For on top of the package was a big dog biscuit!!! AND THEN THINGS STARTED TO CHANGE
Nik was 8 yrs old when things started to change. He started to do weird things. Like stare at the wall or wedge himself between two pieces of furniture. And he growled at one of the grandchildren! Something Nik never did before. Seeing he needed an update on shots anyways I made an appointment for the vet.
She checked Nik over and tested him for heartworm and other things. Everything came back okay. She told us that Nik was getting older now and sometimes older dogs don't tolerate children as well as they did when they were younger. Its like "I'm older now and I just want to rest so leave me alone." This could be true. I don't know
Then about a month later something happened that I will never forget..
Nikki was sleeping on the living room floor, I was home by myself. I saw him wake up and start to get up. All of a sudden he started to stumble.. His legs were not working right... "Nik.. Whats the matter?" I cried. He made it to the kitchen and fell down. His whole body started to shake. He was banging his head on a small refrigerator I keep for cool drinks. With all my might I moved that refrigerator away from his head. I grabbed a throw pillow off the couch and put it under his head.
Help... I needed help and fast. My heart was pounding, my head spinning and my hands shaking. I'd never seen anything like this before and I didn't know what to do... Being home alone and no car I knew I couldn't take him anywhere. But my baby laid there, shaking violently with drool coming from his mouth.
I picked up the phone book... Find the number for the vet.. No it's on the refrigerator on one of those magnetic cards. It took me four trys before my finger punched out the right numbers for the vet. My hands were shaking so. This all happened in a matter of minutes but seemed like hours.
By the time I got the vet on the phone, Nik was coming out of it and started to calm down. He laid there for a minute and then got up and started to walk around. The vet told me to keep him quiet and we made an appointment for later that afternoon.
More tests were taken. Epilepsy, diabetes, and others that I can't remember. They all came back negative. They started him on phenibarbitol and a steroid.
For a while Nik was doing good, although he still did weird things. One day my neighbour called me and said "Nancy, Nik is in front of my house in the middle of the road and won't move for the cars." Nikki NEVER left our yard!! My grandson was here at the time and he ran up to get him. After that i kept a close eye on him. He had become confused.
Well I could raddle on and on about Nik, but I don't want to bring back old memories. He had more seizures. They increased his meds. Finally the doctor told us that everything points to a brain tumor. However being a small hospital they were not equipped to test for that. If we really wanted to know for sure we would have to take him to Cornel University. There they can give him a cat scan and MRI. They also have good vets.
We would do anything for our baby so i asked my vet to make us an appointment. Although we were told that if it was a tumor there wasn't much that could be done. Cornel is about a 95 mile trip from us and we knew the trip would be hard on Nik. We decided to take the motorhome instead of the car to make it more comfortable for Nik. I didn't even want to think what this was going to cost us but Nik was worth it. We'd have taken out a loan if we had to!
Two days before that appointment, Nik went into another seizure. This one was really bad and lasted 10 minutes.. He released his bladder and bowels on the floor.. When he came out of it he couldn't walk..Thick drool was coming from his mouth. We had to carry him out on a blanket to the vet.
They kept him over night. We got a call in the morning saying Nik had had a stroke and was completely paralyzed!!! Couldn't eat or walk and just laid there like a vegetable. The best thing to do was to have him put to sleep. We all wanted to be there when this was done so we made our last trip to the vet. Tears running down my face I watched as the doctor gave Niki his last shot.... Yes Niki passed over to Rainbow Bridge... But we never said good bye to him.. To me Good-bye is too final. Instead it was SO LONG NIKKI... UNTIL WE MEET AGAIN.
I can't begin to tell you how i felt that frightful day. When we got home we drove in the garage and I really broke down. There in the corner of the garage laid Nikis bed. A bed I made myself just days before. Made out of an old egg shell mattress pad and covered with a soft blanket. And his pillow I made with little doggies on it, His water bowl still filled with cool water. Oh how it hurt!!! As I write this it brings back the pain. Tears are falling down my face. Will the pain ever go away??
We had Nikki cremated and his ashes put in a metal box/ It sits on a shelf in my home along with a picture of him at 8 weeks and the last one ever taken. His collar and tags also rest on that shelf.
Well thats about sums it up. Sorry this is so long but there is so much to tell about Nikki that I couldn't say it all in one paragraph. Thanks for reading....Nancy   漏 Written by Grannie/Nancy Scott漏 |
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