I was hesitant to post because although I know Nico's time left with me most likely is short she is still doing "well" and I didn't feel it was appropriate to write about her while you are grieving. But since you asked, here we go.
By way of background:
http://www.amcny.org/about-amc/pet-stories/nicos-story
One "small" story now.
On Christmas eve 2002, my dad had a major brain hemorrhage and was not expected to survive. After 7 weeks in icu/rehab, we signed him out against medical advice when then they said he would never talk, read, write, walk again.
We brought him home and my mom and I rehabbed him on our own. Within a month he was talking and walking and beginning to read and write a little. However, he still had a serious brain injury affecting much of his life. That was now April 2003.
Fast forward to September 2003 and Nico was there to help him with his progress. He was aware on some level of his cognitive difficulties but was able to walk and talk as well as read and write to a certain extent. However, he still wanted to feel independent as he always had been.
He always watched his "granddog" while I was away and he had a routine where he would walk her in the neighborhood and then sit for a half hour or so on the benches outside of their apartment complex. Always the same route.
In september, my parents were watching Nico and my dad wanted to go for his walk so we let him go out with Nico, keeping an eye on them from afar. Nico brought him on his usual route including sitting on "his" bench with him. After about a half hour she began to scratch his hand as a signal it was time to go home. She led him back to the right apartment building and then to their apartment.
She would continue to do that on their visits until his condition worsened and he could no longer walk unassisted. She would then sit in his lap while he was in a wheelchair or lie next to him in his bed.
Now that Nico is approaching 17, she remains insulin dependent and is deaf and blind but I now see for her. She still walks outside with me, without a leash, and seems to know where everything is after 17 years of "our routine". I have taken a photo of her every day for over two years now.
Here she is this past weekend, in "her" solarium and in the town park "watching" the ducks in the pond as we have done every spring/summer for 17 years now.
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