Our friends over at Fiesty Three tagged us in one of those photo games where you pick a certain picture in a certain folder.  Since we use iPhoto, we have always struggled with those games because iPhoto does not exactly use folders.  But, in this case, the folder was the FIRST folder and the tenth picture.  So we went to our first EVENT and picked the tenth picture.  We really like that because our first event in iPhoto is where we store all of our old scanned photographs, so this becomes a trip down memory lane.  Here is the tenth photo:

Princess Natasha and her mentor, Nikita

We love this picture for so many reasons.  Nikita was quite the Diva and was very taken aback when we asked her to play mother to Natasha.  After some struggles, she became quite the maternal figure to Natasha.  Unfortunately, Nikita proceeded to teach her all the Evil Ways of the Siberian.  In fact, Queen Natasha the Evil would never have been so Evil had it not been for the excellent mentoring by Nikita.  In this picture, the two of them are sitting at our front door looking out at the freshly fallen snow in the winter of 2004-2005.

Natasha trying to get Nikita to play

The above is a far more typical picture – Princess Natasha working on Nikita’s nerves.  One of the classic moments I will never forget was when Natasha was 10-12 weeks old.  She thought of Nikita as her hero (that never really changed right up until Nikita’s passing).  I stepped out into the yard and whistled for Nikita.  She came trotting up and Natasha was hanging from her neck, mouth clamped on Nikita’s neck and her little back paws just barely brushing the ground.  Nikita did not look thrilled to have this particular pendant dangling from her neck.

All of us have had that particular dog that will forever be remember as special.  Nikita is that dog for me.  If you would like to read more about her, please check out her page (click dogs at the top and then select Nikita or just go here) or read one of my favorite stories about her here or here.

Since we are Siberians, we totally forget the rules of this game, but here is my challenge to all of my readers.  Pick a special picture of dog that is no longer here with us and share a story.  Please let us know when you do so we can go read.

Our good friend Maverick tagged us in a game going around the internet, so we decided we needed to play.  The rules, in case you missed them, are really simple - Open a file folder, click on the fifth folder and then the fifth photo.  Post the photo and describe it.

First, we had a minor challenge.  We are Mac people.  So we use IPhoto which does not really use folders, but we decided to go with events.  That allowed us to pick the following photo:

On the left is Mama Bear Nikita, so named because she adopted young Natasha and taught her how to be a Siberian (i.e., made her into the Queen Natasha the Evil we all know today).  Before Natasha, Nikita never showed the first maternal instinct at all.  And, at the age of 10 years old, we asked her to suddenly take on this 8 week old puppy fluff.

About 3-4 weeks after Natasha came to live with us, a raccoon entered the yard during the night.  Nikita immediately defended “her” puppy and killed the raccoon, a very good thing since it was probably rabid.  When I let Natasha out of her crate in the morning to go to the bathroom, she walked out, saw the raccoon, and looked in total awe at her Mama Bear.  Hero worship was born.

A week or so later, I called Nikita and she can walking over to me.  Hanging from her neck was Natasha who had clamped on and was dangling like a pendant.  Nikita’s look at me was one of, “Please remove this obnoxious object that follows me everywhere.” 

Another week or so went by and we were sitting in the den.  Natasha was, surprisingly, acting like a total pain.  Nikita turned and corrected her, firmly but in a very appropriate way.  Nikita looked at me for guidance and I simply stayed quiet.  You could see the dawn in her eyes – “Ah, I am supposed to teach young grasshopper!”

And the mothering began.  Natasha mimicked everything Nikita did and learned tremendously from her.  When Nikita passed away 3 years later (2006), Natasha became the queen of the pack.

So this picture makes us smile because it shows how Natasha copied Nikita in every possible way, right down to laying in just the exact way on her bed (wrong front leg hooked, but learning).  Close enough to follow her if Nikita moved, but out of reach of that correction when it came.

Ok, so we have lost track of who has and has not played the game, but consider yourself tagged and go do it!