Nitro

It's been a year and a half now since I lost little Nitro. I thought Nitro was the greatest dog in the world which is what all dog owners think of theirs I'm sure. He was a Havanese, Cuba's national dog and he was declared a champion after only 2 shows. His show name was Pocopayasos in your Face and he came

  from a long line of champions. He was put to stud before he had reached 1 year old and from what the breeder told me he excelled at his job. I was lucky enough to get him just as he turned 3 although he was missing a couple of parts due to the agreement with the breeder. The day I picked him up he was understandably nervous in the car in a crate and he wasn't feeling great either because his nuts had just been cut off so it was no surprise when he threw up. I got him home and he had a dump on the carpet within

5 minutes so it was a quick indoctrination into owning a dog. Nitro was hard to house train because he was in a kennel in a large garage his whole life so he was pretty used to going on the floor. He also had a

bad case of kennel cough when I got him which meant little white blobs of flem around the house. The first morning I had him he got out of the back door and I chased him around the neighbourhood for about 45 minutes before turning for home only to have him follow 3 feet behind me and go straight in the door when I opened it. He was just letting me know who was boss.

  There were obviously a few bumps in the road for the two of us but I know that little devil loved me as much as I loved him. One day I whacked my knee while mountain biking and I had to hobble into the house because my knee was so sore. Without a word of a lie Nitro came up to me 5 minutes later holding his front paw in the air and hobbled around with me for a while. I locked myself out of the house one night so I went to the back and put a hockey stick through the dog door to try and dislodge the wood slat holding the sliding door shut. Nitro was sleeping 5 feet away and awoke to me on my knees outside in the freezing rain cursing and swearing. I was unsuccessful so I went to sleep in the Solstice. I forgot to close the gate and when I awoke in the car 2 hours later and looked outside there was Nitro, soaked but sitting waiting for me to wake up. What a great little guy. I loved to watch him sleep because he could crash in what looked like the most uncomfortable positions and be dead to the world.

   Suffice to say Nitro was the best thing to happen to me in a long time. I had no idea how much that little guy meant to me until he got out because instead of fixing the gate I screwed up and the gate stayed open one day. He was clueless about cars and headed over to the very busy High street. I searched all that night and was combing the woods behind the house the next morning at 6 but I couldn't find him. Lori arrived at about 10 AM to help me look for him and it was shortly afterwards that I received the dreaded phone call. Nitro was dead. For the first time in my life I burst into tears, my little friend was gone. I loved that little guy. He is buried in the back yard now under my Dad's memorial tree and I still think of him every day. I could go on forever but I can hardly see now for the tears.

  I didn't waste any time getting another dog. I couldn't handle the huge hole in my life now that Nitro was gone so I looked on Kijiji and saw a Cockapoo that badly needed a home so I drove down to see him. Shadow came up to me right away and seemed like a great little guy so I took him home with me. He is called Guinness now and he is also a great little dog who is napping beside me at this very moment. He will never replace Nitro but then again Nitro could never replace him. Goodbye Nitro, I love you you little devil, Hello Guinness, I love you you little devil.