July of 1989 I started looking for another dog. I wanted a northern breed mix (husky, malamute etc.) since he/she would be expected to stay outside while we were at work - even thru the winter. I heard of some puppies that were lab/samoyed mix, and went to take a look. The mother was purebred samoyed, the father purebred yellow lab. The owner of the samoyed was giving the puppies away, but taking donation to have her dog spayed (she had rescued the dog not too long before and was not too pleased that she had puppies). I took my time, determining which pup had just the right temperament; bold, but not too dominant, curious, friendly, and not clingy to littermates. The pups were too young to leave their mother at that time, so she marked the ear of the one I picked with a sharpie marker so I would get the right one when I came back.
About a week later, I happened upon an add for a free adult husky/shepherd mix. I called the number given and discovered it was a boarding kennel. They had kindly taken in a stray, and no one had claimed it, so they were looking for a home for her. I went to look at her, and saw that she was a true Heinz57. She had droopy ears as if she had some Lab in her. Her markings may have been the combination of shephard and husky (and others), but her undercoat and curly tail definitely pointed to husky. The poor girl had been dumped, with her leather color, but no tags.
She was overly enthusiastic; as soon as the door to the kennel was open she almost bowled me over - quite a feat for a 35 lb. dog! She also had a deformed, or broken but not set, leg which made her front right leg crooked. That did not slow her down a bit. As she was busy wriggling in my lap, licking my face, and being a generally happy dog, I realized that no one else was likely to give her a home. With her crooked leg, they were not likely to notice the intelligent eyes or the unhesitating trust she gave to a complete stranger.
(Niki - with a good shot of her crooked leg)
I told the kennel owner that I would take her. Upon taking her to the truck, I found out one of her
quirks - she would not get into a vehicle. Her demeanor immediatly changed from a happy dog to one that thought she was in trouble - or worse. I picked her up and put her in the truck, where she road peacably enough, but nervously.
I got her home, put her on a leash and introduced her to Bogie. She was happy to meet him, and Boige - he was ecstatic. It was as if I had brought his long lost sister, Argent, home; there was absolutely no hesitation on his part in accepting her as part of the family. New didn't have any trouble with Niki either, Niki seemed to already have experience with cats, and didn't get too pushy.
(Niki and Bogie in 1989 - shortly after bringing her home)
Niki was about 8 months old when we got her (she went into her 1st heat 4 days after bringing her home), so she still had some growing to do. By the time all was said and done, she went from a 35 pound dog that was shorter than Bogie to a 55 pound dog that was pretty much the same size as she was.
2 weeks after bringing Niki home, we made the final addition to our family, I brought home Sampson when he was 7 weeks old (and 7 pounds). Niki seemed to think Sampson was her pup, she played mother to him and even woke us up when Sampson needed out, so he wouldn't have to mess in his "crate". The amazing, and totally stupid, thing about that was she wasn't housetrained. She was obviously very familiar with a cable, and had not been let into the house. She had a very bad habit of jumping on people and was very needy of attention. Anyway, Sampson was fully housetrained before Niki was - all due to Niki's help.
(Sampson, Niki and Bogie Summer 1989)
By the time Sampson grew to adult size, he was a 75 pound dog (except when he got fat, then he became an 85 pound bruiser). However, the hierachy in the house did not follow the size of the members; Bogie was apparently in charge, except when Niki had had enough with one or the other - then she showed that whe was truly the top dog. Sampson was low man on the totem pole, but that really didn't mean much. Everyone got along so well, and they were all pretty mellow dogs, so rarely was position in the household even displayed, much less used.
(Sampson and Niki chasing snowballs)
(Bogie)
Those 3 dogs saw so many changes, they saw birds come in (at one time we had 4), they saw New to the end of her life, Introduced Shadow, Cleo, Tory and Indy to dogdom, saw the house from when it was barely a shell to completion, and saw the time when we had no neighbors to when all the current houses were built.
(Bogie 1992)
They rode non-complaining thru shift changes (2nd shift, 3rd shift, 2nd shift, 3re, 2nd, 1st) and thru my going back to school. Niki became rock solid - no more jumping, no greediness for attention; Sampson stayed our silly little boy - never really seeming to grow up out of late puppyhood; Bogie took after his father, stoic and non-demanding.
(Niki and Sampson 1992)
In April of 2001 Bogie became very feeble. We had been carrying him up the stairs for almost a year at that point (he had arthritis in his back). He hated to be carried, but became resigned to it. He hung on until the snow melted from the front yard, then on the 27th we knew it was time to let him go with the dignity he had always displayed thru his life so we took him to the vet's one last time.
Niki's health immediatly went downhil for no apparent reason and we put her down 5 weeks later. Sampson was devestated (as told on a post about Prince). He greeted Missy into our household the way Bogie had taught him - without any problems.
Then in early 2003 (has it really been 3 years since he left us?), Sampson died on the after an operation.
Bogie, Niki and Sampson were quite the team. Three dogs in a house seems like a lot, but they all fit together and made it work. Never again could we find the combinations of personalities and attitudes that made up this household at that time in our lives.
They are all still sorely missed.
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