I woke up to Nikki the dog heaving at the foot of the bed, so like every mother of children I grabbed her and pushed her to the bathroom telling her to wait til she got to the bathroom to throw up. I am talking to a dog. I obviously have no sense. But she did throw up dutifully all over the floor and I recognized my long dead fathers shoe shining brush bristles. No wonder she threw up. She is just like Marley in the movie Marley and Me.
My son actually bought her about a month after the movie came out and we all said Nikki was the female version. I had forgotten how much I liked having a dog in the house.

I have always had a dog since I was a little girl but the one I most remember was Simone. She was a half white sheperd and half siberian husky. She had blue eyes and was born in a snow storm in Fuqua Varina, NC. I grew up in Cary and was at a party when I was about 15 years old. Had no business there but I was not a very obedient or good girl. That night puppies were born and I and my friend went out to see them. I picked Simone out immediately but learned a few weeks later that she had been taken by someone else. I knew the person and went to his house to tell him that I wanted her. He did love her and wanted her. But the Lord knew that I needed Simone and a week later the guy called me, he had been kicked out of his house and had no where to keep Simone, did I want her? My Mom and I went immediatedly to pick her fuzzy face up.

 Simone went every where with me and I mean every where. Most of the places I should not have been going to anyway and I think that God made sure that His hand was on me with the help of  a sweet, smart as a whip dog. She slept with me and when I met my husband who had not ever had a dog in the house, she came as part of the package. She died when my son was 3. She got hit by a car on her way to meet a friend of mine around midnight at her back door because my friend always brought her home a treat from the restaurant she worked at. We have not had an inside dog since. My husband always had Labs as outside pets and hunting dogs too, but never an inside dog. Since my son bought Nikki my house is full of hair, chewed up messes and probably smells like a dog, but I don't like to go to sleep unless I see her curled up at the foot the bed or sharing a pillow with my 9 year old. She is the baby of the family now.