Duke's Story

This is a picture of Duke in January 2015.

A Gift Who Came In From The Rain

Just Another Stray Dog

Once upon a time many years ago, there was a great storm coming. I could hear the rumblings of thunder. I went outside and there was this dog that had been going around the three houses on our block for days. I watched it closely to see if it was just lost or if someone had abandoned it. The dog didn't come to around while I was outside. Someone came up my driveway and he was doing some work on the house or was going to do work on the house and he noticed the dog in our woods too. He didn't know whose dog it was either. So after he left, I got a bowl and put some cat food in it. I didn't have a dog so that was the only thing that I could have given it. Turns out that was a good thing because cat food has a much stronger odor then dog food. I guess it was about 15-20 minutes before the dog came out of the woods to eat the food. I didn't go pet it or try to make friends with it that time. It was a he and he ate gingerly and watched for every move and jumped at every noise. As I watched him heat I inspected him for wounds and what-nots. He didn't seem to have any wounds or that I could see from some 10 feet away. He was very emaciated though. You could see all his bones, especially all his ribs and his pelvic bones. He did have a brown collar on. So I let him eat and he took off again. I didn't think he would be coming back as I still thought that he was just lost. We had a sprinkling of rain the rest of the day. Sometimes the sky around here can make all kinds of threatening noises and not release a drop of rain. The next day I went out and there was the dog again. This time I went out and stayed closer to the food dish. This time though I had to feed him by hand. When an animal gets to a certain point they will just stop eating and die. Well this dog was at that point.

The First Night

We also had a wraparound deck and I tried to get him up on it because it was going to rain again. The clouds were forming and getting really dark through the trees. I got to take a look at his collar and he had a rabies tag on it--so I took down the numbers. Well he ran off again and it started to storm pretty good. It was a fierce storm with lots of thundering and lightening and heavy rains. He ran under the back deck. At this time we have no stairs or anything under the house, but an enclosed Crawlspace. I could see him through the deck boards and he was up tight against the house. He was so scared and he was shaking like a leaf about to fall of a tree. It was raining so hard that you could hardly see 5 feet in front of you and I knew that I had to go get him if he was going to survive another week. He was so skinny and frail. I managed to get him up on the deck. It was warmer and dryer there under the roof in the back of the house. Someone gave us a child guard gate and I put it on the front of the deck in the front of the house and he stayed on an old blanket that night. He looked so pitiful and I felt so sorry for him.

The Second and Third Days

I did call the Animal Control to see if we could locate the owner by the number on the rabies tag. It shocked me to listen to what the Officer had to say. I was so mad when I got off the phone; it just broke my heart to hear what the man said. He told me that they couldn't check for tags like that. He also said that the pound was full of larger dogs and that they couldn't take him. We didn't want a dog and was willing to find it a home. The officer said that if the dog was still at our place that he was ours to keep. At that point in time I had no idea what to do. So I gave the dog a bowl of water and some food. I watched him as he slept on our deck on that old blanket. He seemed so calm and less frightened. The rain eventually stopped later that night. He jumped the child guard gate and I thought that was it and he would be gone. Only a few minutes later he came back and jumped back over that gate--to my surprise. He went right back onto that old blanket. He hadn't touched his food though. I opened the door slowly and tried to offer him food by passing it under his nose. He wouldn't take any at all and I talked to him and told him that he needed to eat to gain his strength back. Well I had to feed him piece by piece, but managed to get him to eat all the food. Now my husband wasn't home during this time and I had called him and told him about the dog. He said that no way were we going to keep him and to get that notion right out of my head. Really, I did try to keep my distance in knowing that he did have another owner that might have just lost him.

The Dog knew where he belonged and he knew that he found the right home. We did wait to see if there were any calls from anyone at the Pound and we called every day--but no calls. We put up some posters and no one called us about them either.

I began to get attached, but I really didn't want a big dog--maybe a medium sized dog like I have before down in Virginia. We didn't know what to do--the Pound was full and all the other shelters were full and no one called about this lost dog. Well it is what it is with me and I love animals and will come to their rescue so I called my husband and made a good plea to keep him. My husband told me that he would only be an outside dog because he didn't like animals inside the house - that wasn't totally true we had 2 cats already in the house. Though they were indoor/outdoor ones, they were mine before we got married.

Now we have a dog. I convinced my hubby that I would take care of him and that he needed to be inside because we didn't have a fenced in yard. Come to be years later and we still don't have a fenced in yard! Anyway WE are His People now. We got him a new collar and some dry dog food and a dish or two.

Start At The Beginning

First thing was to find a good name for him. So I thought he looked like Scooby Doo so I called him that name and no reaction at all. I called him other names and nope no reaction. Then I thought that he looked like Marmaduke, but he would only perk up his ears on the last syllable--Duke! So he chose his name to be DUKE and we were all happy. We have a Duke in the family. Yep he was now part of the family.

We called the Vets to make an appointment for his to get a checkup, find out what his age was and get his rabies shots. We also wanted to get him neutered, but after the Vet saw how emaciated and underweight he was we have to schedule that for a month or so down the road. He also had some extra Dew Claws and we opted to have them removed. We thought it was safer for him if he ever got loose and ran through the woods and caught those on something. That would not be good. We also found out that he was 2 years old and he was partially trained. He knew the commands of sit, stay and come. They put his breed down as Boxer/German Shepherd/Yellow Lab mix. They call him mostly boxer, but we don't see anything else but his ears as boxer.

So we had a lot of work to do on Duke to get him ready for his surgery. We had to bring his weight up considerably so that he had a good chance of surviving the surgery. We asked the Vet what we should feed him because at that time I was feeding him by hand, one piece at a time. I did this for about 6 months. They told us to put Bacon Grease over his food and that would bring his weight up fast. Well we did that and well found that he would only eat that once. Then we tried Hamburger Grease and he would only eat that one time too. We were at our wits end.

His gums bled when he ate or chewed on something hard so I was looking around for soft dog toys. I happened to stop in at a Dog Groomers shop and asked her for things like that. She didn't have what I needed. We started talking about Duke and how he wouldn't eat and she told me to start at the very beginning again. She said that feeding Puppy Food would bring his weight up and all the nutrients that he needed to get back to where he should be--which is 80 pounds. When they weighed him at the Vets he was a scant 50 pounds. She told us that Puppy Food has lots of the right kinds of vitamins that he was lacking in. So on the way home I got him Pedigree dry and canned puppy food. I also got him a brush because his hair was really wiry and dirty.

The first month was not so good. He wouldn't eat anything that was large chucks of food. So we tried all the dry foods. What we finally wound up feeding him and to this day he will only eat is the small kibbles for small dogs. The canned food well he would only eat it if I fed it to him out of my hand. That was a little messy, but I was determined to get this dog to eat and gain weight and get nutrients. Oh and I also put capsules of Vitamin E and A in his dry food to help with his skin and coat. He also liked to eat at night after everyone went to bed. He still does this.

Grooming and Bath Time

Brushing him was another rough time at first. The first thing he did when I brought out a brush was to duck like I was going to hit him with it. It took a bit of coaxing and talking to him and telling him that this was a good thing and it would make him feel better. He eventually let me brush him that day. Only he doesn't like his Head brushed at all--even now.

We also tried to give him a bath--no way was he going to let us do that. He sat right in front of the door to the bathroom and put his front paws in front of him and dug them into the floor! With this stance even my husband couldn't get him to move! We eventually got him into the bath tub after a few hours, but then I couldn't wash him because I could only get in front of him and when I tried to get the back side he jumped out of the tub. Thank goodness it was only water! Everything that he passed got soaked! That was when we decided it was best to take him to a groomers and one that would do his size. Petsmart did a real good job on him! He was beautiful! He got a bandana and everything. He was happy coming out of the groomers! The hard part is getting him to go inside the door! I can remember one time taking him to the groomer and my hands were raw from rope burns that the leash made as I tried to hold onto him and get him into the door. Now when I take him I leave him in the car and go inside and tell them that I need help. Oh he is well behaved with the ladies that come out and get him, but with me He's another dog completely!

I got his coat really soft in a month’s time and he did gain about 15 pounds so that they could do the surgery. I was also weaning him from feeding out of my hand too by that time.

The day came for his surgery and I left him off and my husband would pick him up. I am always the bad guy when it comes to that! He absolutely hates to get a bath!

Teaching Him About Treats and Training

He's funny about treats. At first he didn't have any idea what they were. He certainly wasn't taking any from me. We have surmised that he has been beaten with a brush and they used treats as some kind of punishment that followed and the person who did all this to him was a woman. I was very patient with him about all this, not knowing how long he was out and how the other owners treated him and such. One day my daughter brought up her little Chihuahua and she was giving her doggy some treats and offered them to Duke. At first he was hesitant but after watching her little dog eat them, Surprise, Surprise--he took it and ate it. That is how he came to know that treats were a good thing. It took watching another doggy enjoy one to know that it was a good thing and not a bad thing. To this day though he looks at me twice before he takes a treat from my hand. Most times I have to put it on the floor before he will touch it. What they did to this dog just makes me mad. Just maybe it is a good thing that we never found the previous owners.

In that he isn't too keen on the idea of taking treats from me, it went that same with commands. I scolded him one day about getting into my plants and he went and threw up. So we knew that wouldn't work and had to find some other way of disciplining him and training him. We took him to a dog trainer and he passed the first three sessions with flying colors. He did everything that was asked of him and I did everything that I was supposed to do. Well a few months after that he started to slide downhill.

I thought that it would be nice to take him for a walk around the block and up the street. We did fine for a while and then he saw something in the woods and immediately darted after it. He is bigger than I and I really did try to pull him back like the trainer told me to do. Only I had the leash around my wrist and couldn't get it off. He pulled me for awhile up a rocky slope and BAMMMM I fell flat on my face. I got up and he stopped for he knew exactly what he did wrong. I got up and didn't realize that I was within an inch of a tree. I could have been knocked out. I managed to get myself up all the while Duke watched me. I was surprised he let whatever it was go and he didn't continue to chase it. Rocks were stuck in my shins and I was in tears. I could hardly walk, but then...then...the adrenaline hit me and we walked around the corner and I picked Duke up and put him in the house. Immediately I called my husband and told him that this was HIS dog. I haven't taken him for a walk since. I am just not too keen with the thought of slamming into something that is not in my top ten fun things to do while walking up the street. This is why I wanted a smaller dog--one that I could handle. Though Duke is a VERY good dog when he wants to be. I love him no matter what.

In the morning I put him outside on his tether--which by the way he can get to almost the whole yard and it is like 50 feet. He likes to chase cats that don't belong here and he also likes to break up the fights that the two males have in our yard. He has fun! His favorite place is under the deck where it is shady and cool. Every so often he will get wrapped around a tree or the piers on the deck and will bark to let me know that he is tangled. We don't play games when I go out to unwrapped him. My hubby will take him off the tether and unwrap the rope and then put him back on his rope. I will make him backtrack while still on his rope. Sometimes I will give him a treat for this or just get all excited and tell him he is a good boy. He doesn’t' always have to get a treat when he does a good thing. Sometimes he goes out and does his business and then wants right back in. These are the days that he will curl up beside me wherever I am--on the computer, taking an occasional nap or maybe watching a program on the Television. He might not listen to me but he sure does protect me and his feline sisters and brother.

Teaching Him About PlayTime

Since we've seen his actions about bath and grooming we also assumed that he didn't know how to play like other dogs. It took him two years after he became ours or we became his to bark. Two Years! That amazed us.

My daughters came that year for Thanksgiving and they loved him. My oldest daughter started to push him in his side and his playfulness came back and he loves to play now. He will only play with certain toys though and it is only on the times that he wants to play. Right now that isn't very often and he is getting old. We have a basket by the fireplace is ever he wants to play. Oh and he does try to play with the kittens and Charlie, but they are afraid of his size! If he was much smaller then I bet they would play hard and get themselves all played out and lay on the couch together. Dogs and Cats can get along together real well if you have the patience and a cooperative dog and cat. It is best to do this when they are both very young, but it can be done when they are older. I have done this with many dogs and cats that I have owned or that have owned me.

Duke's Battle For A Position On The Totem Pole

We already had two indoor cats, Snit and her daughter Pinkie. Snit didn't really mind him staying with us. She usually slept all day anyway and she has always been around another dog or two. Pinkie, however, was used to her being on the top of that totem pole. She liked sitting on the top of the couch and chair. Now that there was a strange dog in the house she was determined to sit up there and watch Duke as he walked through the house. It was harmless at first, and then it became disturbing. Every chance she got she would dive bomb him from the chair as he walked by. Claws out in an effort to tell him she was top dog or boss. Only it scared the crap out of Duke and he would just look at us as if to say Mommy please stop her, Well we did try to reprimand her ourselves, but it did no good. This went on for months. Finally I took Duke and we had a chat. Yes they do understand you--even if you don't understand them. I told him that the only way that he was going to stop her from dive bombing her was to bark at her or bite at her. Sure enough a few days later he barked at her---and she hasn't touched him since. As long as it isn't death grips or anything that major -let them figure it out on their own. They are like children and sibling rivalry at times. Some dog breeds are not suitable for this. Those would be the ones who are trained to hunt or have a hunting instinct about them. It is best to keep kitty in a carrier or crate until they can smell each other and the cat not hiss when the dog walks by. It's just like introducing another dog or cat into the family, give then time and room to know each other first. This usually takes about a week or two at the most.

Boundaries and Protecting His Owners

We take Duke on outings to the Shopping Center and other places. We were unaware that Duke ever barked or tried to protect anything because at the time he didn't bark. So one day I took him to the shopping mall and on my way back out there were people getting in their car next to mine. I got there and asked the lady if he barked or anything and told her his story. She said yes that he did bark and makes all kinds of noises in an attempt to protect his owner’s car. We had no idea and that was why I asked the lady. So we found out that he has a loyalty to us. It was very good to know that.

My husband worked at a 21 day program for alcoholics and they had many men stay at the house for that program. He would take Duke with him on many occasions and the clients would take turns taking Duke for long Walks. It was a beautiful setting. You could see for miles over the misty mountains and some days you could see the next mountain. The facility owned many acres up there. My husband would let Duke just run around and he would make wide circles and always come back. Duke loved it when he got to go on those trips. They would spend the night as my husband would work back to back shifts to save gas. It was about an hour’s drive from home. Duke would get all his exercise in and when he came home he would relax for the next few days. There were many blacks and whites that were on clients and staff alike. One of the guys became a friend of my husband. He was black. We were kind of in dis-belief at what transpired one day.

When we moved into the house we had some stuff in storage and we also bought new appliances. Well this friend of my husband was helping us. He was going to come by and take the old appliances to the dump for us. Now Duke and he were good buddies at their work place and they got along just fine. For some reason we don't understand, when that friend came to pick up the appliances Duke made a ruckus. He wanted to tear that guy limb from limb. He knew the guy, but we don't know if was because the guy was black or that he thought he was a stranger. Some dogs do not like blacks for one reason or another. WE never taught him that blacks were anything but a friend. We just think that it has something to do with whoever his former owners were. He has never done this with anyone else that has come to our home.

He set his boundaries and his protection and that is fine with us. It is great for me because I am home alone most of the time. Then again anyone who comes to the door or in the driveway, Duke thinks they came to visit him and not me or my husband.

Duke And His Friends

Duke gets along with most other dogs and cats. There is a dog that lives down the street from us whom he can't figure out what he wants. This dog is a basset hound with one brown eye and one blue eye. His name is Mikey and he is a great and loving dog. When he gets off his chain he usually gallivants around the neighborhood in search for his owner. Most times he will venture onto our property and jump on Duke. He plays but he plays kind of rough for Duke who doesn't understand why this dog jumps on top of him and when Duke tries to play he runs away. So it is with Mikey.

He also had three dog friends from across the street; the smallest one, a Cocker Spaniel who almost always sprung loose from his owners when they needed to take him to the groomers or vets. Sometimes I would go over there and take him to the groomers. At any rate, he would sometimes get out and come over here--looking for me of course, but in the interim play with Duke. They also had a German Shepherd and a Black Lab. The lab would get out occasionally and trek on over here and play with Duke too. They moved and for a few months he didn't have anyone to play with around her.

That was remedied though as a guy moved into the house and he got an English Mastiff Puppy. That puppy is so cute (all grown up now) and he would come over and play with Duke and he became a good friend of Duke's. Now that the puppy has grown up he is twice the size of Duke, but they don't seem to mind when he comes to play when the owner isn't looking.

His favorite friend is my daughter's dog. He's in the picture at the right. He goes to her house, which we call it Duke's vacation, when we go away and can't take him. Duke and Rex get along just fine. Her dog gave Duke lots of kisses. Who wouldn't if both of them lived with cats and not another dog? They have great times together and my daughter sometimes takes them to big parks and they walk for hours.

His new favorite friend is Charlie the cat. Charlie is just about a year and a half old. He was the shyest of the litter from Mommy Kitty had last year. At first Charlie wasn't too keen on making friend with anyone. He was very shy and I had a hard time getting him out of the crate when all the other kittens were running around. He soon came to know the house and that this was his place and he was staying here. Duke tolerated another cat, but wasn't too interested in him quite yet. A few months passed and Charlie really opened up. I wish I had a camera before this shot that I took. Duke had just come in from outside and gotten comfy on the couch. Charlie got up on the couch to lay with him as he did a few times before this. Duke must have laid on something very good because Charlie was rubbing all over Duke. I mean he was on the top of him rolling and rubbing and sniffing and then he would roll of the side of Duke and do more of the same. When I took the picture on the right he had just finished with his rubbing and stuff. It was hilarious. Duke didn't mind at all and just let him do his thing. Often times Duke and Charlie will lay on the couch together.

Duke August 2008

Today he is a happy dog. His favorite things to do are go to the park and chase the ducks, play in the snow and rub his nose in it, roll in the yard (not a lot of grass out there) and sleep under the deck.

He loves to try and go through the French doors to chase the raccoons and possums off the deck and occasionally he likes to chase one of our outdoor cats up a tree.

He has the run of the house and several places to sleep. Most times he picks the couch. At night he sleeps on the floor at the bottom end of the bed. When my hubby is gone he will sleep on the floor on the side of the bed that I sleep on. When I am not in the bed he will either be outside under the deck or sleeping right beside me on the floor. On occasion he will sleep on the bed and likes to watch out the widow for his Daddy to come home. He loves me to scratch the top of his head. He now likes for me to put the hamburger grease in his food and sometimes he will just eat where the grease has laid or all of it. He still eats only half of whatever amount of dry food we put in his dish and only after we have gone to bed.

Yep, he sure did know, somehow, that this was the house for him. We spoil him and so does everyone else. He is just a good dog that had a bad start in life. I am glad to be part of his life and to have turned some of that bad around. We love our boy Duke.

Oh this reminds me of a story that I have to tell you about Duke being a boy, like as a child.

We were going to my parent's for a visit and Duke was along for the ride. We were going to spend the night like we always do. My parents live 2 hours away. At any rate, we stopped in a McDonald's to get something to eat. Well my husband asked for a plain hamburger for his boy Duke. I said to the cashier that he was our dog and not a boy. Well my husband made me look like a fool and insisted that Duke was his boy. I left the McDonald's and went to the car. When my husband talks about his dog he talks to people like Duke is a kid and not a Dog and he makes them believe it.

So I guess we have a boy named Duke!

Scratch On Cornea 2011

He had gotten a scratch on the cornea of his eye and had to have 2 surgeries for it.  Neither one took.  He has pain killers when he needs them.  There is nothing else that they can do for him.  We didn’t have a clue as to how he got it, until I watched him outside one day.  Everyone thinks it was the cats, but they don’t go to his eyes, though they love to put their whole faces in his ears…yuck!  While outside he was wiping his mouth and nose and rubbing his face in the dirt.  He had his eyes open the time that I watched him and I surmise that is how he scratched the cornea of his eye.  Silly boy!  That cost us $3,000.00 and his eye will not heal either.  In September of this year, 2013, he will be 13 years old.

The story goes on.  He now has Arthritis in his back and he contracted Vertigo last year.  Humans are not the only ones that get this insidious sickness.  You can read about his trip through that here:  Vertigo In Cats and Dogs

Here is Duke with his Daddy when we first got him