Nito

Nito is one of the neighborhood park dogs, a large and stately female mut, who lives off of handouts from the Central Park police. She entertains herself chasing lizards, frightening visitors, especially those on motorcycles, and wrestling with some of the pet dogs who visit the park on a daily basis.

She is a street urchin, skilled at crossing busy lanes of traffic to and from the park, adept at survival in a sometimes hostile world, able to hold her own and make her presence known when she sees fit. She has an acute eye for character among the park visitors, sizing them up in an instant, knowing almost instinctively who to trust and who to avoid.

She can curry favor with the best of them, ingratiating herself to the kinder souls who cross her path. Nito loves to be petted by those brave enough to do so, and will frequently follow that person home in the hopes of persuading them to take her in, yet there is a street roughness about her that has people ultimately turn her away.

She is young and full of play, eager for a friendly game of tag or a wrestling match with the other park dogs. Like most young dogs, she has learned the art of the gentle bite so that nobody gets hurt during their rough housing, and she readily adjusts the intensity of the play to that of her playmates. This works well for some of the other dogs are little more than puppies, and are easily scared off by too much aggression.

Though Nito loves the unfettered freedom and openness of life in Central Park, she clearly envies the dogs that have masters who take care of them, and take them for walks in the park. She would happily trade her freedom to anyone willing to do the same for her, though in reality, many of the visiting dogs envy her as well.

Her and Lilly, my friend’s Golden Retriever, have become best friends, and frequently accompany each other on our walks throughout the park. They can easy spend an entire day playing together, and following Lilly’s lead, both will jump into one of the many fountains at the park to refresh themselves when they get tired or overheated from the rigors of play.

Actually, I wish I could bring Nito home. The two of them certainly go well together, but it isn’t really my place, and an extra dog might not go over so well. I think I could curb the rough edges of Nito if she were mine, but I am only an extended visitor, so I will have to leave her to the care of the Park Police.

The police apparently use the dogs like Nito to help patrol the park and keep the drunks and drug users away. The dogs have an uncanny sense of who is sober, and who is not, and have a rather loud way of letting the police know when someone doesn’t belong there.