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| "Nikita" |
Today is Nikita’s 3rd birthday. She has
been with us for about eight months now and has found a place in our family and
our hearts. For the first fourteen months of her life she was with a
“puppy raiser” for the Guide Dogs of America foundation. Nikita was socialized
with lots of other dogs and people and taken to so many different places for her training.
The ‘puppy raiser’ was kind enough to send me pictures of her life before I got
her. Nikita has been to restaurants, parks, Boy Scout troop meetings,
children’s hospital, painting classes, doctors and dentists offices, movies, on
a ferry ride, Santa Anita racetrack, Christmas parades and many more places too
numerous to mention. At the end of her training she was assessed by the
foundation and sadly turned down because she didn’t have the right temperament
to continue. I was told she gets too distracted to be a good guide dog.
I could definitely see how that would be true.
Nikita was raised with two female Labradors, so
transitioning to one sister, Ginger, my Australian Shepherd, wasn’t very hard
for her since she was always trained with her sisters and many other dogs
too. At first they got along great and then not so much as they both vied
to become the dominant one. Nikita won for a while but somehow Ginger is
now dominating and Nikita follows her around and takes her lead. She
won’t even go out by herself unless Ginger goes first. So they’ve worked it out
between them. They play and run together and have a good time all in all.
The only thing that Nikita has still to master is her
unauthorized horse herding. She will sometimes run into the paddock and
bark and chase the horses. They mostly ignore her but Rosie did give her
a warning kick out with her back legs once. She’s getting much better at
behaving and sitting and staying during turnout and bring in times.
Here
are some pictures of her life so far:
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| "How cute am I" |
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| "Valentine Puppy" |
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| "I'm a Halloween Butterfly" |
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| "It's Election Day, I voted for the candidate with the most treats!" |
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| "Here I am at Santa Anita, I bet on the winner" |
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"Saying Goodbye to my friends was hard"
"Nikita in her new home with us" |
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| "I'm in my new home now with my new sister Ginger" |
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| " I don't know what this white stuff is but I like it!" |
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| " Um, I never saw one of these before" |
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| "It's my stick...no it's MY stick" |
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| For a California girl she loves the snow |
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| My Co-Pilot |
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| Can't get in the Kubota without an assistant to help me drag the arena |
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| "Soaking up some sun on the patio" |
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| "No I'm not coming in, one more step and I'm outta here" |
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| " I know nothing about how these flowers got crushed, I think it was Ginger" |
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| " I heard it's my birthday, where's the treats!" |
Quote for Today
My goal in life is to be as good of a person my dog already thinks I am
