Nick: The Cutest Boy on the Block

A pattern emerges.

The animal shelter population is always shifting. This time, Lona and the last two Billy Joel puppies are gone. Tammy, the little girl missing an eye is gone too. She never appeared on the adoption website. The staff is busy and I don’t ask where she is.

But mellow Myrtle, the black Chihuahua is still around and on display in the store window today.

Nick, the soft Yellow Lab puppy, still calls the animal shelter home.

—Why are you still here?

Nick walks like a little gentleman-in-training while every other puppy walks like its the first time they have seen SoHo on a leash. The puppies—in front of your feet, doing a circle around you.

—I’m sorry, honey, I didn’t mean to step on your paw, but you put it right in front of my moving foot.

The young ones run ahead and look back at you to say, aren’t you coming?

People on the street react to lush Nick like they spotted a celebrity. Two sets of people don’t just admire him; they want to adopt him. The shelter is just around the corner, I tell them.

Nick stops in front of a gold reflective door to gaze at his own image, and why shouldn’t he?