05/14/2026
In the over thirty years since I first found “Freeway” along I-35, injured, pregnant, and dying of thirst on a blistering Texas August afternoon, I have never given up on a dog. Nico is my Waterloo.
The combination of his extreme fear, neglect, and abuse, coupled with the Husky breed’s intrinsic speed, agility, intelligence, stubbornness, independence, and well-known escape artist tendencies coupled with a soon-to-be 72 year old, 300 lb. man with five joint replacements, poor balance & stability, who walks with a cane, and you have a disaster waiting to happen.
In the last week and a half, we have had two near potentially life-threatening episodes, (Nico’s not mine.)
Last Thursday we were returning from our second or third walk together. I was planning to attach the 20’ tie out he was on, (because I couldn’t get close enough to him to attach a proper leash), to an eyehook in my garage when he je**ed just as I was attaching the tie out, pulling the leash out of my hand. He didn’t go racing off, but of course he wouldn’t come back to me, and when I would get 10 or 15 feet away from him, he would run a little further away. Miraculously the long tie out got caught on a neighbor’s shrub at the end of the block and I got him back. One block away from busy Towanda-Barnes Road at 9:00 AM on a work day.
Monday, I took him for a walk at McGraw Park in Bloomington. Part of the sidewalk on the route is behind single-family homes with fenced-in yards. Well, a crazed, barking dog bum-rushed the fence, startling Nico and he wildly tried to run off in a different direction pulling me off balance and almost causing to me to fall. Getting this fat, old body up again is not an easy task or a pretty sight.
Lastly Nico is heartworm positive, has completed the doxycycline part of the treatment, and is scheduled for his first Melarsomine injection, (arsenic-based anthelmintic), a week from today. The challenge of keeping him calm and minimizing his heartrate for two to three months, (second & third injections of Melarsomine in about a month), seems impossible given his extreme fear, agility and speed.
If he were to escape and be lost and/or killed under my care, or develop pulmonary emboli during his heartworm treatment because of unchecked, elevated heartrate, I could never forgive myself, so made the heart-breaking decision to relinquish him back to Wish Bone Canine Rescue. My spirit is willing, but my flesh is weak.
Sorry to disappoint you all, it was an extremely hard decision for me to make. I will leave the "My Life with Nico" page up for another month or so, and then remove it. Happy Tails to All.
P.S. Why in the world did I adopt a mini Husky you ask? The answer is pretty simple: Ian. I have had Chow Chows and Chow mixes for over thirty years, but Ian was my first “Chusky” , 50/50 Chow Chow and Husky. He was such a spirited, happy, loving, joyous, funny dog who, through the three years I was lucky enough to have him, tried to live each day to the fullest, even during the last three weeks or so of his life when he wouldn’t/couldn’t eat because of the metastasized gastric cancer growing in his tummy. I really admired that spirit, stoicism, and zeal for life, so when I saw Nico/Togo on the AdoptAPet site, and read his sad story, I wanted to “fix” him, not realizing the magnitude of his fear, neglect and possible abuse. Silly me.
