The happy story of Nikkie
revolves around names.
When she arrived home,
we were trying to find
a registration name for her.
We wanted something very different
from the other boxers we had
because she was from
a completely different bloodline.

One of us always liked
"Bone Shaker"
because it is so typical of the way boxers play with their toys:
 They literally shake them
or all your bones
if you play tug-of-war with them.
So she became
Dieterich’s Bone Shaker.

Although Nikkie was a very shy girl,
 she had a way of shaking her toys that was sending them flying
and hanging everywhere.
If Nikkie was around,
there was no way you could find  toys on the ground.

When she had her litter with us,
one day as she was coming in
from outside,
she grabbed a hard latex red pig
on the floor and brought it with her
in the whelping box
with her puppies.
For the next three years,
she carried that red pig
wherever she went, even when she went to live with one of our friend.

No other dogs were allowed
to get near her adopted baby.