We are dog people.  So we have had the yappers and the chewers.  Replacing furniture is no fun, especially when you are just starting out and money is tight.  Then there was the time when the two leather straps on my briefcase disappeared.  They were there when we went out to eat.  Ah yes, the adolescent years.

We lost Holly, our lovable Sheltie, at the age of 12.  She could identify a dozen of her toys and when I would ask her to go get a particular one, she would race to the hall closet and come back with the requested toy.  She had all kinds of energy and when I would raise the weights on the grandfather clock, would come tearing to assist.  The weights would end up with nose prints on them.  They were brass and I would have to polish out the nose prints.  We finally negotiated a deal where she could chew on the end of the chains, but hands (nose) off the weights.

Holly ended up with kidney problems and died in 2005.  At that time we were over 65 and unwilling to replace our beloved Holly.  With no children or pets at home, we were free to do something spontaneous (not that we ever did).  But after about two years we weighed the pros and cons and decided to find another Sheltie.  One of the cons was did we have the energy to keep up with a puppy, especially a Sheltie?

We located the woman up in Colesville, Maryland where we had purchased Holly, but she was no longer breeding dogs.  She recommended a woman near Clifton, Virginia.  The woman had one puppy that was going to be too big to show and she would sell it to us if we didn’t mind an oversize Sheltie.  It turned out that Holly had also been too big to show, so that was fine with us.  We saw Nikki in the pen with her two sisters.  She was already a lot bigger than them.  A gigantic ball of fluff.

From the time we brought her home, she very seldom barked and never in the house.  I’m not sure she had any accidents in the house, but that may be more to our credit than hers.  There were certain rooms she was not permitted to enter.  One time when I caught her in the living room, I shouted at her.  She leaped sideways and then scampered out of the room.  Shelties can leap sideways back and forth to control the direction of sheep.  We have no sheep.  She did it because she was startled, but she never returned to the living room.

One of the remarkable things about Nikki is her understanding of things around her.  She is a quiet, friendly dog that is not demanding.  When it is time  for her meal or evening treat, she will appear and start staring at us.  She usually starts 15 minutes early.  Daylight savings time will screw her up for a short time.  But she seems to understand that she has entered a subdued environment and does nothing to change it.

I like to putt on the family room rug, but I couldn’t do it with Holly in the house.  As soon as the white ball started rolling, Holly had it in her mouth.  Nikki, however, understands that the ball in not one of her toys (it was never given to her with much ceremony).  So she gets comfortable and watches me putt.  I can putt with in an inch of her nose and she never moves it.  I wish I didn’t move my nose when I putt.

A few blogs back (“A Summer on the Road”), I mentioned that this summer was going to be an ordeal.  We were traveling for 45 days in a three-month period.  Well, it was even worse for Nikki.  She was boarded five separate times for a total of 52 days.  It never phased her.  Each time when I picked her up and brought her home, she would come in the house, look around and then look around the fenced-in back yard.  With that done, everything was back to normal.  No pouting, no destructive gestures, like making my briefcase straps disappear.  Just back to her comfortable routine.

Maybe other dogs do this, but this is our first.  Nikki sleeps on her back with all four legs in the air.  With her hind legs spread apart I would start humming, “Some day my prince with come.”  Carole would stare daggers at me.

I just reread this blog and I am not sure how convincing a case I have made that Nikki is so remarkable.  I guess it is the day to day things like when I’m putting on my socks and she is putting the sock and my foot in her mouth.  And doing it so gently that is doesn’t cause any discomfort.

Written by PJ Rice on www.ricequips.com