Nakita

I want to share with y'all a very special dog from my childhood. The story is long, but I hope you'll read it through to the end and maybe it will remind you of a dog that touched your life in a way that you'll never forget smile emoticon

The story begins when I was in grade 2 and my elderly grandmother moved in with us. However, living in the same house as her son and his family was a little more codependency than she desired, and so we set her up in her own little living unit near ours on the property. She wanted a dog to keep her company at night, and so we responded to an ad in a little local paper about Akita/Black Lab mix puppies for 50$. I remember it all so clearly... pulling up a dirt driveway to see a grassy yard scattered with black, fuzzy puppies. 

I hopped out of the car, intending to pet each and every puppy. The first puppy I reached was a female who looked me straight in the eyes, then wiggled into my hands. From her, I moved on to the next puppy... and the next... but that first puppy followed me to each other puppy. My grandmother made her selection - a giant, roly-poly fluffball male pup she named "Amigo." As we were getting back into the car, that same little female puppy who had been following me tried to climb into the car with me. I didn't know what to do... I looked from her pleading, chocolate brown eyes to my parents with confusion and heartbreak. But what will be, will be... and that little girl pup was allowed to come home with me.

I named her Nakita. Nakita Grey Suanna, in full... Suanna being after an aunt I had lost to cancer. She went by such nicknames as Kita and Monkey, and was my ever-present shadow.

It was about the same time in my life that I really began to learn about dog sports. I watched every televised event I could find, mostly conformation and agility. So I taught Nakita how to stack and gait, and my father helped me build our own agility course in the front yard... we put metal rods in the ground for weave poles, used my tire swing as a jump, and made a pause table out of old scrap wood. For Show & Tell in school that year, I hauled my agility equipment, Nakita, and her brother Amigo to my school for a performance by "Jairi and the Dynamic Doggie Duo!" I even made "Staff" passes for my friends who would help move equipment.

In addition to our home-style agility training, I taught Nakita to retrieve objects by name and hold them in her mouth for photos. Unfortunately, I wasn't able to locate a photo of her I am quite fond of... her sitting in front of my mother's koi pond, holding a rose in her mouth. She was also an excellent "just for fun" search and rescue dog. A favourite game among me and my friends was for one of them to go hide somewhere on our 9 acres of shrubs and brush, and Nakita would find them. Her tracking skills also worked against me once, when in a childish fit I "ran away"... only to be found by my own dog that my dad has sent after me!

One sunny summer morning when she was a few years old, Nakita and I were making our way up the front walk to the house when she suddenly whipped about in front of me. She was snarling, teeth fully bared, hackles up, and slowly stalking towards me. I was mortified. What had I done to suddenly enrage my most loved companion?! I backed away from her slowly, calling to her in a near tearful panic to calm down and be a good girl. I reached what she deemed a suitable distance back, and she began to fervently bark at the house. My parents came rushing outside, down the porch steps - straight into a rattlesnake sunning on the front walk. As soon as my father made to take care of the snake, Nakita came to my side meekly and wiggly, licking my fingers and gazing up at me with a look that clearly said "Please don't be mad, I love you.. I had to do it for your own good." 

When I was 18, I became pregnant with my first child. Nakita took on a motherly role to my stomach, always sniffing and gently prodding, then gazing up at me with those same warm brown eyes... that were now surrounded in grey fur. I couldn't wait for the moment when my baby son would meet the dog who had carried me through childhood.

One rainy morning about a month before my due date, Nakita wouldn't come up for breakfast. She was laying in the driveway, soaked, and unwilling to move. We carried her onto the porch. And when those eyes so full of love met mine... I knew it was time to say goodbye.

I spent the next few weeks silent, sullen, and lost... trying to figure out a path in life that I could manage without my beloved girl. And when my son was born, I held him tight and whispered to him about his canine guardian angel who would always look over him.