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9:28am

Nickalous Jasper

I believe that animals can sense so much more than we give them credit for. My dog Nickey proved this to me. Before I tell you how, first I will tell you a little about him.

Before my father retired he was an HVAC foreman and the company he was employed at was doing a job at an animal shelter, installing heating and air conditioning. While he was working there he noticed a female Chihuahua that he said got all excited everytime he walked by her cage. Being a softy he asked if he could take her home. They really liked my father and allowed him to adopt her. He brought her home and named her Candy. Well, a few weeks later my mother and I learned what my father already knew, that Candy was pregnant. My father said he just could not bear the thought of her being put to sleep, since it was a kill shelter that euthanized for space.

I lived with my parents at the time and I still remember that frigid November night when Candy went into labor and delivered 5 puppies. Chihuahua's are just so tiny when they are born, about the size of a large mouse. Nickey was the runt. He was later given to me by my parents as a Christmas gift. I named him after St. Nickalous in honor the Christmas spirit. I remember how very cold it was that winter. That made it especially hard to socialize Nickey during those very impressionable first months of his life. He was so tiny and taking him out really not an option. I was really more concerned for his well being than anything.

He was such an adorable little puppy! He loved my dog Shakiya from the start. She was so gentle with him considering she had about 100 pounds on him! They would play together for hours!

I got married that same year and Nickey, Shakiya and I moved into our home in Brookfield with my husband Brian. Nickey adapted well to that change. He was just never real good with people he did not know well. He would hide under the couch whenever people would come over. It wasn't that he was mean, he was just timid and unsure. It was just his nature. Many of my friends would often joke that they had never actually ever seen Nickey, just heard him from behind the couch. On rare occasions when Nickey did come out from behind the couch when people were over he would never, ever let them pet him. He always made sure he didn't go too far from his comfort zone by couch so when he became nervous with visitors there he could just scoot right back under the couch. As soon as our company would leave, he would come right out and act like his normal fun loving self. He really was a cuddle bug and full of antics that would continually make my husband and I laugh. The only people that Nickey would ever willingly go to besides my husband and I were my parents, my husbands parents, our family friend Freddie, and our dog sitter, Sheila.

About two years after my husband and I were married my father in-law was diagnosed with pancreatic cancer. I can remember being completely devastated by this news, as was the whole family. His prognosis was not good, six months to a year. After his diagnosis my in-laws moved in with us so that we could help my mother in-law take care of him. My father in-law also built the house that we live in, it was his home for 40 years. It just seemed right that he spend his remaining days in a place that was so close to his heart, and truly his home even though he no longer owned it on paper.

It was not always easy to see this man who was so very dear to my heart losing his brave battle with this horrible disease. Though, he never once complained. There were many times he would try to eat dinner that I had made and he would have to get up from the table because he would vomit due to his chemotherapy. Sometimes I would catch my father in-law staring off into space, he seemed a hundred miles away, and I knew that in his mind he was pondering his fate and the cards that had been dealt to him.

I never wanted him to see me cry, I wear my heart on my sleeve, and always have. I wanted to be brave for him. I would sometimes make excuses about taking the dogs outside to play when really all I wanted to do was go out there so I could cry. It was just sometimes so hard to see him so very sick, and to know that it was just a matter of time and he would no longer be with us. My dogs always helped get me through everything. This situation was no exception.

During the last weeks of my father in-laws life hospice, those wonderful people, were visiting our house on a regular basis providing comfort care. There was nothing left medically that could be done to help or prolong my father in-laws life. The cancer had spread to many parts of his body by this point. One Wednesday afternoon while sitting by my father in-laws bed with my mother in-law and brother in-law, Tony, my father in-law looked at his wife and said "Honey, call all this kids, I think tonight is the night." We all scrambled to call everyone to get them to the house as quickly as possible. I can remember my hands shaking as I dialed the phone to tell my husband to come home from work. Before everyone showed up at our house I was able to take a few minutes to tell my father in-law how much I Ioved him and how much he meant me. The words we spoke to each other that day will be embedded in my memory forever.

About an hour later all his kids and older grand kids showed up and we all squeezed into that tiny bedroom. The room was so quiet, as if time was standing still. That's when I looked down and sitting on the floor of that room with us was Nickey. None of us could believe it. I knew at that moment Nickey had sensed that my father in-law was sick and dying and this was his way of saying his good-bye to a man who had showed him so much kindness. It touched my heart in a way I will never be able to explain. That was the last time my father in-law was conscious as he slipped into a coma a few hours later, and passed away two days later.

About three months later, on a day I was particularly missing my father in-law, I decided to watch a video I had taken of him opening up his Christmas gifts. As soon as Nickey heard my father in-laws voice he began to bark, I knew at that moment that Nickey was missing him, too.

Nickey passed away this past year and I miss him terribly. I can only hope that he and my father in-law are enjoying each others company in heaven.

This was a rather difficult story for me to write, and I realize rather a lengthy one. But the point of the story is that Nickey taught me that animals do sense so much. They communicate with us in ways that we sometimes over look. They feel much of the same emotional pain that we do. They truly will never cease to amaze me.

This story was written in memory of my father in-law, Harvey E. Bressette and a true gentleman with such honor, dignity and grace, and my dog, Nickalous Jasper, aka, Nickey, who brought so much joy to my life and taught me many valuable lessons. May you both rest in peace....