Up and Coming Weekly is a weekly publication in Fayetteville, NC and Fort Bragg, NC area offering local news, views, arts, entertainment and community event and business information.
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MARCH 25-31, 2015 UCW 11 WWW.UPANDCOMINGWEEKLY.COM After nearly 18 excellent years of faithful service, our friend Nico the Wonder Dachshund has shuffled off this mortal coil. He has gone to his doggy reward tottering across the Rainbow Bridge to the place where all good dogs go. Nico was a Prince among dogs. Nico entered the land of assisted doggy living in the Fall of 2013 when he developed dementia and forgot he was housebroken. A friend told us about doggy diapers which allowed Nico another year and a half of being our most excellent buddy. If there was an Olympic event for changing doggy diapers I would have good chance for a gold medal thanks to Nico. He spent his last winter evenings wrapped in his blanket lying comfortably by the fireplace warming his old bones and sleeping in his sunbeam during the day. Once you put him down, there was an excellent chance he would not move until you came back to get him. His back legs betrayed him causing him to scoot across the floor propelling himself with his front legs with his little hind legs splayed out. Slick wooden floors were the bane of his existence affording him little traction. He preferred staying on rugs which helped his back legs walk again. Sometime he would get stuck under a chair and not be able to figure out how to get out until someone would lift him up and put him by the fire. In his final months, Nico moved to the level of skilled nursing care. He was carried from food bowl, to sunbeam, to fireplace, to outside for his daily business, and then to his chair at bedtime. He had lost all his teeth, his vision was almost gone, and he was pretty much deaf. But he still had a heart full of love. Every now and then he would still have moments of lucidity when he knew who he was and who we were. Nico came to live with us as a puppy in 1997 on my son Dan's 16th birthday. Dan was hoping for a car. He got Nico instead. Dan went away to college two years later. Nico spent the next 16 years with us. Dan's younger brother Will was 10 at the time of Nico's arrival. Ten-year-olds are not really good about keeping exciting secrets. Will knew Nico was going to be a surprise for Dan but the secret was too good to keep. He repeatedly asked Dan to guess what his birthday present was. To throw Dan off the scent, he told Dan that "It is not a puppy." Nico being a miniature Dachshund remained puppy-sized his entire life. He was a good puppy and an even better dog. For most of his life, he was extremely bouncy and flexible. He could scale tall chairs in a single bound. He would climb to the top of the seat back cushion to pretend he was a tall dog. We told him he was the world's most boneless dog as he was graceful as a Russian Olympic gymnast. Nico arrived as an auxiliary Dachshund to supplement Elvis our original Dachshund. They were great buddies until Elvis passed away in 2008 leaving Nico the dog of the house. The last few months we had Nico upon waking up each morning we would congratulate him on still being alive. This was our way of pretending that when that morning came that he was no longer with us that it wouldn't hurt. Nico had become so feeble that it was obvious he was in his last days. Finally a night came when he became very ill. The next day the vet said his kidneys had failed and there was nothing left to do for him. My wife Lani sat with Nico in the car in the vet's parking lot for two hours waiting for Will to come home to say his last good bye to Nico. Will buried Nico in the back yard pet cemetery with our other pets, Elvis, and the cats Butterscotch and Whiteneck. There is a real empty spot by the fireplace now. I still look for Nico there when I come into the house. He is gone. His sunbeam still remains. Nico Has Left the Building by PITT DICKEY at Historic Hornes fusion taco emporium LUNCH & DINNER Beer • Wine Redefined Tacos & more 124 Hay Street • Downtown Fayetteville • 910.491.5926 your uniquely Delicious Downtown Dining Destination Jasmine Guy J.W. Seabrook Auditorium Tickets $10 Advance - $15 at the door Students and Military Free with I.D. Please Dress for the Occasion... (Zoot Suits and Harlem Vogue Attire Optional). Supported by the US Department of Education, Title 3 Special thanks to Up & Coming Weekly & The Avery Sharpe Trio starring 1920'S HARLEM RENAISSANCE A BUILDING OF ARTISTIC EXPRESSION PITT DICKEY, Staff Writer. COMMENTS? Editor@upandcomingweekly.com. Nico resting by the fire.