Once a Siberian Husky owner, always a Siberian Husky owner

When it was time to get a dog, my husband and I never really had a choice in the breed.Each of us had a Siberian Husky while we were growing up, and that's the only dog that was ever really ours. Our parents had had other dogs after we'd left home, but those dogs were their dogs - not ours.My dog was Nikki. He had the traditional black-and-white Husky markings, but brown eyes. That's actually more unusual in a Siberian Husky than the so-called David Bowie eyes (one brown, one blue). Most often, they have blue eyes. One thing that was not unusual about Nikki, however, was his behavior.He had the Husky Attitude. Nikki was extremely bright and we had to spell many words in front of him. In fact, he learned how to spell treat and we started spelling it the way I misspelled it out loud as a child - t-r-a-r-t instead of t-r-e-a-t - so he wouldn't know what we were saying.But when it came to obedience school? Nah, he wasn't having anything of it. He decided to pee on the instructor's foot, very much aware of what he was doing. Yep, he got kicked out. He learned all the things he was supposed to - sit, stay, down, paw - but seemed to realize that if he obeyed too much, well, we might actually expect him to obey all the time.Bright as he was, he was still a dog, and was a complete dork sometimes. We had a room in our house that jutted off the front and had windows on three sides. You could see who was at the front door from that room. He didn't seem to realize we could see him, too, curled up on the sofa.He knew he wasn't supposed to be on the sofa, so when we'd get home, he'd be rushing from the sofa to the front door. By the time we got it open, he was sitting there, expectantly, on his rug next to the door. He'd look at us, as if to say, "Hi! I've been sitting here the whole time, waiting for you to arrive. I am so glad you are here and I wasn't anywhere I wasn't supposed to be!"Meanwhile, we'd seen him jump off the sofa, which still had the indentation from his furry body on it.He also loved going in the car. Nothing excited him more than the prospect of going for a car ride. Even though the main place he went in the car was to the veterinarian. He'd realize that as we were a couple of blocks away from the vet's, when his joy would turn to, "Oh no! Not again!"He escaped the house one time and my dad drove around the neighborhood looking for him. All my dad had to do was to stop the car and open the door for Nikki when he found him. Nikki came bounding over and happily jumped in. He was quite pleased, too, that this ride didn't end in a vet visit.My dog now is Lumi (pictured above). She has the typical blue eyes, but has very similar markings to Nikki. She's been sent home early from obedience school a couple of times, but fortunately not for peeing on the instructor, and it was just temporary. Basically, she learned what was being taught, got tired of showing she knew it, and went to go talk to some guy sitting in the corner. She was having none of it when she was informed she needed to go back to the training.We also find ourselves spelling certain words in front of her. In fact, she knows the word "kittycat" and gets very excited when she hears it. And if I say "walk" anywhere within earshot, she becomes my shadow and won't leave me alone until I confirm whether she's getting a walk or not. If I do confirm it, she follows me everywhere.The main problem with Huskies, however, is that they love to run. You can't let a Husky off-leash in the park, because she ain't coming back. Well, she will, eventually. It might just be a couple hours or even couple of days later.They have a strong prey instinct, too. Lumi caught a rabbit while on a leash at night, and ate almost the entire thing before my mother-in-law could properly react. She's caught lots of grasshoppers and lizards, and a chipmunk or two. She's killed a possum and knocked birds out of the air, though she doesn't seem to be interested in eating the birds. That's a good thing, because she did escape one time and got into a neighbor's chicken coop. All the birds survived, though they lost a lot of feathers that time.I look at my future and know that if I get a dog again, it'll be a Husky. Again. Part of me wants a slightly more obedient critter, but I feel as if it would get boring. One thing about a Husky - life's never boring.