Nikki loved everyone, people and dogs alike. She especially loved Elio the UPS delivery man. Everyday when she heard his truck driving up the street she would run to the door. On two occasions she tried to climb into his truck to ride with him.

She immediately adopted Haggis, one of the Jack Russel puppies born to Maggie. It was so funny to see this massive 60 pound dog playing with this little puppy. Her favorite game was keep away, but she used to let Haggis win. The picture below tells it all, they are playing with a small green frog toy. Haggis loved her as much as his own mother and continued to look for her the rest of his life after she had crossed over.

Before Annette got her, she had a bad experience in a lake where she almost drowned, making her fearful of water. When we moved to our new house she began pulling coconuts from the edge of the lake and shredding them. She eventually overcame her fear of water enough to wade into the lake up to her neck to grab floating coconuts. She taught Grafin, our Belgian Malinois to hunt and destroy coconuts, which she continued to do the rest of her life

We used to play tug of war with her rope toy until I had to release it before she pulled my arm out of its socket. She then stood guard over it waiting for me to try to grab it which caused her to immediately grab it before I could. The tug of war started again until I let go, and the whole cycle started over. Boxes delivered to our house were doomed. All I had to do was make one small lunge with the box, no matter how big it was, and she grabbed on and tried to rip it from my grip. Almost every box delivered to our house entered the front door with one or more edges ripped and shredded.

She replaced my alarm clock. Every morning, about five minutes before the alarm went off, she came over and jammed that big sloppy nose of hers into my side and stood there with her head on the edge of the bed waiting for me to get up.

We miss you so much Nikki. I think about you regularly and remember the good times we had together. I know you have made lots of friends on the other side of the bridge.