by Melissa Sudbery
My husband of almost 6 years left me for someone else. I was living in an apartment with only my parrot, Bud, for company. I loved Bud, but I needed something warm to sleep with me at night or at least keep me company on the many nights I couldn't sleep. I remember walking to my car one day after work thinking, "Lord, surely there's a little dog out there somewhere who needs me as much as I need it", and about a week later I found Niki.
As I walked through the animal shelter, all the dogs and puppies eagerly jumped up against their gates to be noticed. I stopped at this one pen and all I could see was two huge eyes and a bundle of black fur cowering in the far corner. I asked the shelter employee, "What's wrong with this little dog?", and was told that he had been abused. The employee told me that the dog's name was Niki, he had just turned one year-old, was housebroken and needed to be in a home with no other dogs and no children. He also took thyroid medication every day or he lost his fur. I asked the woman if she would get Niki out for me to hold and she did. I reached for the tiny, trembling little body and those huge dark eyes looked at me like, "Please don't hurt me!" I stroked him and gradually he began to relax. Since the shelter employee was a personal friend of mine, she offered to allow me to take Niki home over the weekend with the promise that I could bring him back if it didn't work out. Well, I took Niki home with me, gave him a bath and we both curled up together in bed and promptly went to sleep. That was the beginning of a little over 10 years of mutual love.
Niki was probably a mix of Japenese chin and maybe chihuahua. When I got him, he weighed only 5 pounds, but he grew to be 8 pounds and very healthy. Although he remained neurotic because of the abuse he suffered as a puppy, he did get much better with time and consistent love and good treatment. When I remarried - this time to a very good man - Niki immediately took to my husband, which was pretty extraordinary. Niki became my husband's little lapdog, and the two of them would sit together on the sofa for hours. Niki may have had a rough beginning, but my husband and I did our best to make the rest of his life wonderful.
Many years went by and in January we began to notice that Niki was losing weight. We took him to the vet who prescribed some digestive aids and told us to feed him twice a day. He ate like a little horse and was active and happy, but didn't put on as much weight as he should have. The vet diagnosed cancer, but Niki was almost 11 years old by then, the prognosis was grim and he hated getting medical treatment. We decided to leave Niki alone and give him double-doses of love, and allow nature to take its course. As long as Niki seemed "normal" and in no pain, we were content to leave things as they were. One morning in early June, Niki went outside to do his business then he lay down under his favorite tree to nap. When my husband called him to come and eat, he didn't get up. Niki died peacefully in his sleep.
Thinking back to when I told my friend at the shelter that I wanted to keep Niki, she was very happy because he was so neurotic that he probably would have been euthanized if I hadn't adopted him. She thought I was saving his life, and maybe that's true. However, he helped to save me, too. That was such a difficult time in my life - I was divorced and my father passed away a year later. There were so many mornings when I would wake up and think, "Why even bother to get out of bed?" And then Niki would start jumping around and come to give me a good morning kiss, and I got out of bed. Niki needed me and I needed him. I pray that I'll see my little friend again when I reach my Heavenly home someday. I believe that I will. (In memory of Niki, 1991-2002, age 10.5)