Its About Time: Nico's Story, First Conact

Its About Time: Nico's Story, First Contact

You will notice under "BackStory" a new entry, "Nico's Story, First Contact."  If you are interested in   what happened after Nico's crate landed at the Ottawa airport you will find it there.  It is the first installment of Nico's own story. There will be more, soon.

Meanwhile in the day-to-day context, Benny and Nico are getting along very well.  But the news today is all about Thunder.  Thunder seems to have taken Benny under his wing, quietly, and without fanfare, just as he did with Nico when he came here, albeit very differently.  For Benny is a different dog than Nico, his needs are different, and Thunder, always the prince of economy in effort, just does what has to be done.  Benny, unlike Nico is a supremely confident young pup and has never been given reason to distrust anybody. He is calm but bold, careful, yet not fearful. He is also absolutely tenacious about getting what he wants.  He is so much like Thunder in these characteristics, you'd think they were a father and son team, and not perfect strangers but a month ago.

Last night all three dogs  ended up coming in the house because it was raining.  Nico sleeps upstairs with my husband Rick. Nico  and Benny will play incessantly all night if left together, so Benny and Thunder stay downstairs with me. At five a.m Benny was a bit restless, but then came and got into bed with me. At 5:30 Thunder started pacing, and finally came in and starting pushing me with his nose. I took him and Benny outside: Benny had a big pee and a poop, Thunder nothing. I swear to the dog-gods Thunder was telling me,  Benny needs to go out and if you fall asleep before you take him you will have a mess to clean up. Get with it.

Benny for his part has been getting old Thunder to play! It's quite fun to watch: Benny runs, and Thunder runs too, cutting the pup off. Benny runs into him and falls the ground. Benny leaps up and  cuts across in front of the old man, so he can get "hit" again. Once or twice is enough for Thunder, but we've never seen him play like that before and it is absolutely delightful.  

Thunder refuses to accept invitations to the kind of wrestling play Nico and Benny enjoy.  Nor has he ever responded to Nico's attempts to engage him in any kind of contact.  He is old and smart, too old to win at wrestling and too smart to allow the young boys the opportunity to test him. He is indeed a grand old man, our Thunder.  I sure hope he stays with us for a few more years yet. Apart from how I feel about him as just himself, he is so good with both Nico and Benny: they rely on him, and so do I.