Niko's best friend

On a hot summer afternoon I was hard at work in my garden, when my lovely affectionate wife, our sweet daughter Sara and Niko our wonderful grandson, greeted me smiling and said, "how you doing abuelo have you had a good day?, your garden looks good"... Sara asked "how about a glass of nice cold ice tea?". Why why are they being so nice, I wondered. " I would love an ice-tea"' I replied... just as Sara returned with the tea, Mercedes said, "Niko has something to ask you"... "Can we keep her please, please" and pulled out a puppy from behind his back. I said "No way "hosay!" Remember what happened to the last dog?" Loki, a puppy Rottweiler that grew into 120 lbs. of ill-tempered muscles, fond of attacking humans including our son Alex. "But... this one is nicer I'll take good care of her" Niko implored... " "come on abuelo, I will feed her, give her water you won't have to do anything". "She won't bother you" Sara added, "I will help him". I reminded her of her aversion to picking up the dog's poop with out gagging or throwing up and who ended up doing this chore? me.

My sweet wife interjects "come on be nice, I will also help...whenever I can".
The pressure was mounting... I had to think quickly, aha! I said "look it wouldn't be fair, dogs need to be exercised, bathed, brushed, remember you quit doing these chores before and I ended up doing them. Specially walking the dog? further when she get older she will not get along with our cat" They were all silent... Niko sat quietly on the step with the puppy on his lap and a melancholy face. Sara dispiritedly looked to the ground, I felt confidant my sweet wife knew I was right, she understood the logic of my argument, surely she will support me.

Suddenly everyone grew quiet, I knew immediately she was going to speak, her lovely lips are about to announce and reaffirm my logic. She raised her right eyebrow and with a wroth tone said, "those are the most ignoble excuses, further more..." that was all she had to say, after that. We had a new dog at home, they named her hawkie. The first days, weeks and months were OK, for the most part they took care of the dog, but months turned to years 2004, . . . . . 2010, six years later, guess who is in charge of dog maintenance?


Now every one promised to keep the gate closed at all times. Well someone forgot and for two days hawkie vanished. Niko was worried sick about his dog. He had me drive him around the city and a couple of animal shelters with out much success. On the third day a friend of his brought him this picture. He quickly called the number, it was the animal shelter they had the dog."My dog is in the animal jail, we got to get her out" He hauled me to the animal shelter. Being a good abuelo we went to claim the animal. What I did no expect was the exorbitant fees just to claim a dog: lodging and care$$, "loose dog" citation$$, medical treatment $$, rabies shot because we didn't bring proof of shots $, duplicate license $, Oooh! your dog is not spayed $$$. The total was over two hundred dollars and still have to get her spayed. So I told them to keep the dog, for that amount of money I could buy ten dogs.

I started to walk out, But Niko refused to leave his dog behind, the attendant at the counter said, Ohm! look, poor little boy he wants his dog". Well Niko convinced me to pay. What could I do? The dog was licking Niko's face, Niko was kissing the dog... they had me. They both looked at me with sad eyes. I had to give in. We took the mutt home. My reward? Niko said "I love you abuelo, thank you" The dog happily waged her tail. I walked out of the shelter with two very happy friends, it was all worth it.

Once in a while my wife takes the dog walking with her, in one particular day after a walk she says something is wrong with the dog can you check her?. Nicko tells me abuelo, " hawkie looks sick can you see what's wrong ". Sara finds me in the garage as tells me something is wrong with the dog's ear. Alex, our youngest son, tells me "the dog looks messed up, she can't even walk". My wife said we need to take the dog to the Vet. By now I know that, "we" means me!

Stay tuned: a visit to the Vet.