Nali was a Pet Store puppy that was bought by a college student on an impulse. She was straight out of the Missouri puppy mills and the Hunte Corp. I was able to acquire her AKC papers that had never been sent in so I was able to register her with her real registration number rather than having to obtain an ILP number on her. That’s also how I know what her pedigree is and where she really came from. The student who bought her kept her locked in an apartment bathroom for the first few months of her life, taking her out like a toy to be played with and then locking her back up when there was something more fun to do. She suffered numerous respiratory infections and was very sickly and skinny. When Nali was about 5 months old, the newness and fun wore off and the bathroom messes got old and the girl decided to dump her. She was on her way to the pound with her when my son stepped in. He called me and asked me to take the puppy.

I agreed and I have never regretted my decision. She was and still is the sweetest and most loving little girl. She is five years old now and she still gets sheepish and “smiles” at you showing her teeth in the most comical way.

She melded into my household instantly. At the time, I had two adult Great Danes and a 1 ½ year old male weim, Gandalf. Nali’s name comes from another character out of the book Lord of the Rings. In the book, Nali was a warrior dwarf. Our Nali, at times, can be pretty much the same. But she has always been comfortable with her place in the pack. She willingly submitted to both of the boys and in the years since remains submissive to the male dogs, but is intensely protective of house and home, With Dahnia, my remaining but very senior (11 y.o.) dane, she is almost a groupie…constantly following her and seeking her approval. She has become a willing and constant companion and playmate of all of the other dogs and a source of joy for the human pack members.

She is the first dog I’ve ever had with separation anxiety….probably arising from her days in the bathroom. She took to the crate training pretty well, but when left alone, she would destroy anything that was left in the crate with her. She went through at least 6 dog beds before I just left her to lay on an industrial rubber backed door mat while in the crate. After awhile, I let her spend some time out of the crate when we were not home and nothing happened. At that point I stopped locking her in the crate and just left the door to it open and her destructive tendencies disappeared. I don’t think her separation anxiety was as much from being separated from us as it was being separated from the other dogs. She’s also the only weim I’ve ever had that I couldn’t break the habit of counter surfing. To this day, nothing is safe.

She continued to suffer with some respiratory problems off and on. At about 15 months, she contracted Valley Fever, a fungal infection that is only present in the desert southwest. She was hospitalized for 3 days with a body temp of 106+ and skin ulcers. Thankfully she bounced back and we treated her with the appropriate anti-fungal drugs and she made a complete recovery.

Nali has a great nose on her and is very birdy. I think she would probably make a good tracking dog and probably a good field and hunting dog, even though I’ve never done any of that type of work with her before. Her desire to please made her the easiest dog I’ve ever obedience trained. Always being very careful not to make a mistake, made her a little challenging, though. There were times when she was hesitant and it curtailed her drive to work. She took her cues from Gandalf and he always being so full of himself without a care in the world gave her some confidence. When he wasn’t around she wasn’t quite the same dog.

She earned her Canine Good Citizen certificate at 10 months old. Her first forays into competitive Obedience were at 18 months old and were extremely successful. She got her Companion Dog title in 3 straight tries and placed in the top 3 dogs every time. I continued to compete with her in Novice after she got her title and she continued to do well. She finished out 2004 as the #7 Obedience Weimaraner in the country. I took her on into the Open Class and she did almost as well. It took her a few more tries, but once she got the hang of it, she qualified every time and most of the time placed in the ribbons.

At about the same time Nali started in Open Obedience, I had started Gandalf in agility training. After she achieved her Companion Dog Excellent title, I decided she should try agility too. Agility is a huge confidence builder for a dog and I thought she could use that. She was still a little hesitant about many things, but she could also run like greased lightning when she wanted to.

She took to agility training quickly (as long as Gandalf was around) and even though, I had been training Gandalf a year longer than I had been training Nali, she got her first Novice agility titles at about the same time he did. She got to be quite entertaining on the course…for a variety of reasons. And her inconsistency earned her several nicknames in the agility community. Below are just a few of them:

Sometimes she would run fast with a lot of drive and sometimes she would poke along like she had been drugged. Sometimes she’d start slow and speed up…..sometimes start fast and slow down. And you just never knew what speed she was going to go. Thus she became known as “Sybil”

Sometimes she would tiptoe across the contact equipment like she had freshly painted nails that weren’t dry. And prance through the grass like it was sticking between her toes. This earned her the name “The Priss Queen”

Sometimes she will just stop dead in her tracks on the course and look for her Daddy that she knows is videotaping her. If she finds him, she will pose for a photo op and then go on about the course all the while with me calling her name and yelling for her to come back to reality. For this, she is now known as “Paris Hilton”. This is the nick name that has stuck.

Nali aka Paris has continued to excel at agility. She got her Open titles long before brother Gandalf did and she is now working at the Excellent level. She got her first Excellent title in Jumpers w/Weaves last November.

She and her weim brother Duncan are known in the confines of our back yard as “Bonnie & Clyde” and as “the criminals”. That’s because they are always up to something and it’s usually no good. Many holes have been dug and potted plants have been up-ended in the pursuit of bunnies and rodents. But at the end of the day, she looks up at you with that tail that never stops wagging and she “smiles” and she puts her paws on you and then stands up eye to eye with you and gives you a big slurpy kiss.

Even though I did not rescue her from some horrible plight like so many of our precious weims find themselves in, I know that I saved her from being dumped at the pound and possibly euthanized or possibly being adopted by someone who wouldn’t/couldn’t give her the life that we’ve given her. She has given that back to us in love and companionship ten fold.