Princess Nikki, take 2

It’s kind of fun to write these posts, then schedule them for posting at a later time!  It means that if I have a streak of creativity and write two or three posts at one sitting, I can set them up to post later, I don’t have to post them all at once.  That’s what happened last week.  I wrote almost an entire week’s posts at one sitting, then scheduled them to post on successive days at precisely 6 am.

The last of the dogs I’m going to write about before moving on to other things is our Princess Nikki.  I initially wrote the following post regarding our Princess on 1/4/2010.  I was just going to edit that post, but I see life has changed in more than one way for her, so I’ll leave it up to you to go read that post of 1/4/10 on your own time.  Today I’ll fill in the story a little, and bring y’all up to date!

In an earlier story, about Travis & Savannah, I related the sad story of Savannah’s death on a cold, March evening in… well, there’s the problem!  We can’t recall, exactly whether Savannah died in 2001 or in 2002.  So, let’s call it 2001.  There was no way Pam could live without the love of Savannah. We tried pretty hard to not add to our family, but in the end, she needed a new little puppy to give her happiness. And so, 3 and a half months after Savannah left, Nikki joined our family from a shelter in Enid, Oklahoma. Nikki is, well, Nikki … sometimes Princess, at other times she’s “Squirt”. This little rescue was just a little fuzz ball when she joined the family. Such a little princess she has become. After Pam died in November, 2002, Scott and I agreed that we must take Nikki in ourselves and so she has become a beloved pet… albeit one with numerous needs. Pam didn’t socialize Nikki too well… okay not at all.

For years, we kept talking about needing to socialize Nikki.  But I kept watching how miserable she was going anywhere, rides for the sake of rides scared her (all my previous dogs LOVED going for a ride).  Going to the vet scared her.  She hated parks.  She cowered at the sight of her leash.  And so Scott and I chose to honor her timidity.  Very much the wrong decision, we both now know.  But at the time, we thought by providing her as “fear-free” a life as possible we were doing the right thing.

I’m not sure, really, when this changed.  At some point, we began to notice little signs from her that well, maybe, just possibly, it could potentially be possible that she was beginning to come out of her shell.  We didn’t have lots of visitors (though Gary did) and maybe each new face through the door gnawed away at her timidity.  Or perhaps it was because at some point in the past couple of years I realized that our behavior was reinforcing her fear, so we began to just ignore her fear when people DID come to our door.

Now, don’t get me wrong, Nikki is still a frightened, timid little girl (of nearly 11 years) but she warms to visitors; her barking sprees only last a few minutes, then wear out.  I think it’s possible that we can have a relatively calm life for her remaining years with some more work.

Nikki has her health issues.  There’s every possibility that she is going blind, but so far she seems to be compensating for it okay.  Her eyes are always blood-shot.  She’s lost some of her delightful fur on her sides.

Nikki does okay with rain, now, though at one time not too long ago she was afraid of getting wet.  She’ll at least go out and take care of her potty without too much problem.  But she still hates baths.  As a result she has only been getting them 1x a year or so!  (No she doesn’t stink, at least that we can tell).  But recently we’ve committed to taking her to PetSmart every 2 months for a bath.  This last time I asked them to trim her fur.  Oops!  She almost looks funny they’ve trimmed her so!  I assume doggy fur eventually grows back.  And they get the chore of trimming her nails, as well.

Ixchel, I think, has been good for Nikki.  Nikki no longer has place of prominence, cuddling with me all night watching television.  Ixchel likes the sofa too, and so Nikki has been spending lots of time sleeping near me on the floor.  That makes me a little unhappy, I liked our cuddles.  But Ixchel lies up against my leg, or chews on her chew toy (which squeaks) and that bugs Nikki.  But the two of them spend a lot of time playing outside when we’re home, and I do think maybe Ixchel’s outgoing nature is rubbing off, just a little, on our Princess Nikki.

And so, dear readers, there you have it.  You’ve learned about PC Kitty, Travis & Savannah, Ixchel & now, Princess Nikki… oh, just so you know, Pam named Nikki after Anna Nicole Smith.  Don’t ask me why.