Theresa Lewis

One day, my husband and I went to an animal shelter with a friend who wanted to rescue a dog. I had never been to an animal shelter before. It was chaotic and noisy. We used to have dogs, but two years earlier we lost our last one. We missed her terribly.

While we were at the shelter, I went from cage to cage just looking at the dogs. Almost all of them were barking and jumping up and down as we passed. Outside each cage was a list of the dog’s history as they knew it. There was only one dog that wasn’t carrying on like the rest of them. She was a Giant Malamute. She was classified as a runaway.

When I stopped at her cage and spoke to her, she stole my heart right away. I knew she was special. She didn’t let a peep out of her. I asked her why she ended up in there. She seemed to be listening to my every word. I asked her if she could jump up like the rest of the dogs. She did. When she did jump up in her cage, she was freaking huge. She stood over six feet tall. I felt dwarfed by her size. I told my husband about her and said that I wanted her, especially after hearing everyone else say she was a runaway. No one wanted a runaway dog. My husband said he had seen the dog there a few days earlier and had brought me there to see if I liked her.

I was excited. We applied to adopt her and we were accepted. I was in love with her right from the start. Malamutes seldom bark unless threatened. The thought of having a quiet dog really appealed to me. She seemed to take to me right away. We named her Nikka.

When we brought Nikka home, I took her for a walk outside. I had her leash wrapped around my hand. I soon realized that if she did want to take off, I would not be able to control her. I would have to let go of her. I explained that to her and she listened to me. I told her that I was not able to walk very fast, so she would have to walk slowly when she walked with me. She always walked slowly when she was with me. I never had a problem walking her. Whatever I said, she listened to me and obeyed.  My husband had a terrible time walking her because she always pulled him along. She never did that with me.

Nikka loved everyone and everyone seemed to love her… after they got over the fear of her size. She had a hard time making friends with men because she was a dog that had been beaten with a board by the previous owner. He bought her to breed her and she didn’t want to be bred. If I told her that a certain man was a friend, she would go to him, but if I didn’t tell her that, she would stand behind me for protection.

Nikka loved cats and other animals, but she could not stand barking dogs.  She wanted to attack. Perhaps it was because she had spent several months in the kennel with over twenty barking dogs.

Where we lived in the countryside, we had a lot of foxes. Every night they would be out on the hunt for food. Nikka would lie on the deck and watch the foxes playing in the field. There was one fox in particular that came more often than the others and slowly got up the nerve to sit at a distance and watch Nikka. Nikka would lie on the deck and watch the fox. If she saw the fox make eye contact with her, she would turn her head away. The fox would do the same if he saw Nikka looking at him. Every day, the fox came a little closer.

It was a joy to see how the two animals developed their friendship. A few times, the fox came up on the deck and peeked in the window to see where Nikka was if she was in the house. We named the fox Charlie. Charlie would stay all night and sleep under a bush on the front lawn or on the deck just waiting for Nikka to come out in the morning. When I would put Nikka out in the morning, the fox would scamper off the deck and lie close to where Nikka used to lie. For hours every day, they would both lie there and watch each other just a few feet apart. That is all they ever did.

Sadly, we lost Nikka two years ago from complications from the beatings she received at the hands of her previous owner. Her loss still pains me greatly.