In the summer of 2011, after Megan had graduated from college, she decided she wanted to get a dog to accompany her on the next leg of her journey, whatever it would be. So we headed over to Big Dog Ranch and took a look at all the dogs they had for adoption. She found Nika with several other pups that had been rescued from a kill shelter in Miami. It was, for both of us, love at first sight.
We brought her home a couple days later and she immediately took to our red Golden Retriever, Noah. He was two years older than Nika and became a kind of mentor to her. She lived with us for five or six months – while Megan worked at Sea World with dolphins. 
Then when Megan ‘s internship at Sea World was done, she launched her dog-sitting business and took Nika home to Orlando with her. I remember standing out in the driveway, crying, as they drove off.
Over the years, Nika went everywhere with Megan and with us when we were together as a family. She was there for every Wine Walk in Orlando, where Megan exhibited her art. We took her and Noah with us to the Florida keys, to Cedar Key, into the Carolinas.
In March 2019, a year before Covid hit, Noah passed away. There were a number of synchronicities surrounding his death. By then, we had Nigel, just 2 at the time. Noah had been his mentor, too. The following weekend when Megan and Nika arrived, Nika ran around the house looking for Noah. Quite often that weekend, I would see her and Nigel gazing off into space and wondered if they could see Noah’s spirit.
Nika moved in with us at some point during the pandemic. Nigel loved having another dog in the house. We kidded that Nika was in retirement. She had gotten fed up with all the dogs Megan was watching at her place and here, there was just Nigel, who adored her, and two cats who loved her. She also got to go to the dog park every day, went out to dinner with us, to the dog beach, and on vacations.
She loved chasing squirrels, made friends with people and dogs at the dog park, slept with Rob on the porch when the nights were cool. Sometimes at the park, she would wander off alone and sit utterly still, like she was meditating. I often felt she was a human soul who had chosen to come back this time as a dog.
This morning when I woke up, I noticed that Nika just wasn’t herself. She could barely walk. She panted a lot. I made her a bed on the floor and sat next to her and felt she was dying. I called our vet, discovered they are no longer open on Sundays, so I took her to an emergency vet, Access Specialty Animal Hospitals. When the vet finally came in to talk to me, I told her what I’d observed and felt.
“Well, she’s very sick. She has a large tumor and is bleeding internally.” She didn’t know if the tumor was malignant. I told her I wanted to take Nika home and then to our vet tomorrow. She didn’t recommend it. “She’s bleeding out and she’ll eventually suffocate because the blood will go into her lungs. It’s an awful and painful way to die.”
I spent several hours wrestling with what to do, crying, talking with Megan & Rob and a couple of friends, and finally made the choice to euthanize her.They brought us both into a room so I could spend time with her before and during. It’s heartbreaking to make this choice. I feel like there’s a huge hole inside me now. I told her repeatedly how much we all loved her and asked her, repeatedly, to please come back to us and to give me a sign when she does.
Nika touched so many people’s lives – here, in Orlando, wherever she was.
Now I hope she and Noah and Jessie, are first golden, and all the cats and a bird we’ve lost over the years, are together, cavorting and enjoying themselves and planning their next lives. You know all of you have a home here.
