Nico's Homecoming

The newest member of our family came home Friday night and made himself right at home.  Here he is, Nico Middle- Name-As-Yet-Undetermined-But-I'm-Thinking-Maybe-Springsteen St. Amant.  He's a sweetheart and a real character: gentle and full of love, but also quite spunky and opinionated.  After having his tangles cut off at the shelter, he looks a lot like a stuffed animal who has been loved almost to pieces--parts of his fur missing, other parts tufty.  The Velveteen Puppy.

Here he is, on his ride home from the Shelter:

And here he is, taking his victory lap through PetSmart to buy his very own collar and tag:

We've been enjoying getting to know him, trying to figure out what we can about his past based on his personality quirks.  One things obvious: he must have survived by begging.  He's a masterly beggar, and has this whole trick-circus-dog-dancing-on-his-hind-legs routine we struggle to ignore as we eat our dinner.  

He loves Andre, but if Andre looms in the doorway too suddenly, Nico barks at him.  So maybe a tall man was less than kind to him once.  And he's a little scared of bathrooms.

Unlike our other dogs, he took right away to his crate, probably because when you've lived out in the rain, four walls and a roof seem pretty luxurious.  

But he likes being with people around the clock, so he wasn't too happy this morning when I locked him in the crate for the first time before I left for work.

As for Reuben, our senior dog, he was a little uncertain about this new addition, but after a few days of Nico's peppy presence in his life, he seems resigned to the whole thing...and I hope soon he'll even be glad for the company. As the rest of us already are.