Kipper was with us for quite some time. He was rescued on our behalf by the Little Shelter of Long Island, and was then transferred to Heart Bandits rep, Audra Eckes. His first stop in our system was Samantha Chan's where he spent some time getting used to the BARF diet. After a few weeks, we transferred Kipper to another foster home in Brooklyn, and it seemed for some time that his foster mom wanted to adopt him! So, we pulled Kip from our available dogs page, and after six months, his foster mom changed her mind....a woman's perogative. And so, Kip went back to Samantha's, and finally to a new foster home in MA. Shortly thereafter, the perfect home for Kipper turned up. Donnah Nickerson-Reti was searching for a family dog whose special companion would be her nine year old son, Curtis. And, what a great kid! And so, the adoption meeting went smoothly -- Kipper and Curtis seemed made for each other. He went home with Donnah and Curtis that night, and was promptly renamed Sekita. Donnah's initial report was glowing....but as the weeks went on, Sekita began to exhibit some typical eskie traits....leash aggression and suspicion of strangers....that evolve over time, if the proper obedience program is not applied. This story is extraordinary in that Donnah and Curtis are problem-solving the issues, and that they are not giving up on Sekita when the going gets tough. This is a wonderful example of the commitment that we look for in our adopters. Donnah promises to keep us posted on Sekita's progress. Hi Denise Sekita still has major problems with lunging and barking his head off at anyone we meet. He is great at home and with friends (after he has stopped his initial terrorizing of them). Actually, it appears that he has a real dislike of men. He does better with boys, and will calm down with them after 5 - 10 minutes, but men are a real problem. We took him out near a university athletic center and he was lunging/barking/growling horribly because there were a lot of adult males in the area. A policeman actually made us take him away telling us that vicious dogs are not allowed in public places! Can you imagine him being called a vicious dog? He is also not good with cats. Our two cats have been frightened into one room in the house and they don't come out except when the dog is crated at night. So, we are still working on that one. The obedience class person told us that we need to get him to stop lunging, etc. at people before he can go to class. We have gotten him one of those prong-type collars from the pet store, and are having some success with that. We shall see. As you know, we have two cats. One's name is Kitzel. Life around here was getting far too hectic and crazy calling Kitzel and Kipper. The cat is much older and quite used to his name. We figured that Kipper's name was probably given to him by Heart Bandits (or at least we hope so). Anyway, we started calling him Sekita and he has adjusted to, and responds to it. Much less confusion now! Otherwise, Curtis and Sekita love each other and are working on balancing a dog biscuit on the end of his nose (the dog's, not Curtis'). Sekita already knew sit, lay down, shake. This new trick may take them forever, but they are having fun. Not to mention how many biscuits get consumed. Hope you had a good holiday. Donnah