PR's Online Sketchbook and Rough Draft Compilation

Mates of State - These Days (Daytrotter Sessions, Nico/Jackson Browne Cover).

“I’ve stopped my dreaming. I won’t do too much scheming these days.”

5 years ago today is the day I adopted my dog, Nico, from the Champaign-Urbana animal shelter. She’s 6 now, and from what I can tell she was an abused dog before I got her. I was really lonely and depressed during my final year of undergrad college: I was living by myself at the time, and I made a conscious decision to adopt a dog. Her original name was Jasmine, but considering that my cousin’s name is Jasmine, I decided to name her Nico — after the Velvet Underground/Andy Warhol sing/model.

When I first came home for spring break that year, I told my mom that I’m bringing home a friend to stay with me, not knowing that I had a dog for the past month or so. “Does she eat pizza?” my mom asked. I jokingly said no. As soon as I arrived home to my parents’ house in the suburbs of Chicago, my mom saw Nico and sat in the middle of the stairs and cried — a gesture that said, “why the fuck did you get a goddamned dog?” That night, my parents forced Nico to sleep in the basement alone. Instead, I slept with with my dog, making a makeshift bed out of blankets on top of the cold linoleum. Eventually, my parents grew to love Nico and even now, they ask how she’s doing over our brief phone conversations.

I eventually moved to New York, bringing Nico with me. She’s always by my side. Nico has and always will be that perpetual thing that brings me unconditional happiness; I wouldn’t know what to do or how I’d feel without my dog. Probably more depressed. More lonely.

In any event, this cover song (and its original) embodies how I feel: Nico Doggerton changed my life for the better.