Theresa Lewis

Nikka’s journey continues

 

We adopted Nikka in October and in the end of January, we had friends visiting us for a couple of weeks. The weather had been typical for January. There was a lot of snow and at that time it was extremely cold. We had been having a great time with our friends, but they wanted to be outside more than we wanted to be. Quite frankly, when the days are bitterly cold, my body seizes up and I can’t bear it. I often felt bad for Nikka because she was a snow dog and she loved the cold. She could endure the extreme cold for several hours at a time. I could only last a couple of minutes at best.

Just to break the boredom of being isolated inside the house, our friends decided to build a humungous snow sculpture of “Miss Piggy’s” head in our yard. It was really fun watching it take shape from the warm comfort of our home. To us, we could see that it was “Miss Piggy” with a huge bow on top of her head, but to Nikka, it was just a weird looking snow bank. Once it was done, it was still all white snow. Jim, our friend came in and asked me if we had anything to color the snow. Well, all I had was food coloring, no paint like he wanted.

Once Jim added blue coloring to the eyes and used a marker on round circles cut from a paper bag to make the pupils black, “Miss Piggy” started to come alive. He then colored the cheeks pink. He used a black marker on a paper bag to make false eyelashes, the pupils of the eyes and a red marker to make big red lips all of which he cut out and attached to his sculpture.

All the time he worked, Nikka just mooched around and paid little attention to what was materializing around her. Suddenly she noticed the huge sculpture had a face with great big eyes and enormous ruby red lips. She jumped in the air then ran far away from it. She crouched low and barked at it. We laughed ourselves silly as we watched her reaction to it. She was petrified that this animal had invaded her territory. Jim was able to assure Nikka that there was nothing to be afraid of. Slowly, with Jim encouraging her, Nikka approached the gigantic head. No doubt she wanted to sniff it and try to determine exactly who, or what this creature was. As she got close, a gentle breeze blew and made the paper bag eyelashes flutter in the wind. Nikka leapt in the air again and ran for her life. 

She was so scared that she wanted to come in the house to escape from this alien monster that had silently landed in our yard, but she was trapped on the opposite side of the head. Nikka could see me through the patio door and she wanted me to come out and save her from this monster. I’m sure she didn’t appreciate the peals of laughter coming from me as I tried to call her inside. My sides were hurting from laughing at her. Knowing how afraid she was of the sculpture, I had no choice but to go out and rescue her. As soon as her feet touched the deck, she made a beeline inside the house.

For the rest of their stay, Nikka had a hard time going outside to do her business with “Miss Piggy” watching her. I always had to go out with her. Nikka never once turned her back on the sculpture when she went out. Night was the worst time for her. When I would open the door for her to go outside, she would hesitate for a few moments. She would look back to make sure I was watching her while she was out. I think she was afraid that if I wasn’t watching her, “Miss Piggy’s” head would rise up and attack her.

I didn’t want to dismantle the artistic sculpture while our friends were still with us, but once they left, my niece came over and she and Nikka went outside and broke it all up. Watching Nikka’s reaction and participation in the destruction of the formidable head, was just as amusing as seeing Nikka’s reaction once the eyes gave it life.

My niece invited Nikka to help her break it apart. The first thing she did was snatch off the long fluttering eyelashes to Nikka’s delight. Then the lips were unceremoniously ripped off and Nikka jumped around in excitement. Finally, my niece climbed on top of what was left of the mighty head and she jumped up and down on it to break it up. She told Nikka to do the same and Nikka happily obliged.

The joy in Nikka’s behaviour was such fun to witness. Once the structure was demolished to her satisfaction, she ran around in circles and jumped and played. There was no hiding the joy she felt about getting rid of that ruby-lipped monster with the big eyes and fluttering eyelashes.

Throughout the rest of that day and for the next few days Nikka would periodically check the yard to make sure “Miss Piggy” was gone for good and had not returned.

More stories about Nikka’s journey will follow

The End