We Had To Put Duke Down

R I P Duke September 2000 - August 25, 2016

This is the beginning of his story: How We Got Duke

Duke had been with us for 14 great years.  This is a story in pictures.

The first day that he came to us was on a very rainy day in September of 2002.  It was pouring rain and I watched him as he went from house to house on my corner of the road.  We he got close enough to me I put my and out to him with some cat food. This picture was a few days after that day, when he really decided that we would be his pack leader from then on. See how skinny he was then.  He was about to give up totally.  I had to feed him puppy food, by hand, to get him some nutrition.  Then wean him off that when he was able to eat more.

We got him neutered and found out that he had double dewclaws and so we had them removed at the same time.  We found that he was a mix of Boxer (his ears and forehead), German Shepherd (his black around his nose and big ribcage) and Yellow Lab (his coloring).

He loved it here.  My daughters loved him too and babysat him every once in a while.

He would play in the snow and he loved laying around.

He loved going to the park.  Later on in his last couple of years he developed Arthritis and wouldn't get in the car.  He also used to love going to work with his daddy on Sunday's.  We miss that so much.

When Charlie was born and he was so shy Duke took him under his wings and they became inseparable.  Charlie is having a really hard time with Duke leaving us.  These are some of the picture of Duke and his sidekick Charlie.

Duke got cancer when he was younger.  I think he was about 7 or 8 years old and he did not like that collar on him at all.

He got Vertigo about 3 years ago and never really recovered from that, but many of the cats tried to help him through it.

Then last year he made a new friend.  Here is a picture of it but you can also go the the story about that on this blog too.

Now Duke sleeps in this box and his favorite toys are with him.  Charlie sleep on the crate right up next to the box that Duke is in almost every night.  We had him on the mantel and Charlie would sleep on that crate up next to the stone.  My husband thought that he was trying to be close to Duke, so we moved Duke to the top of the crate and it was true.  Charlie and Duke are inseparable.

We also decided to put Duke in with either one of us who passes away first.  My husband and I thought that he came to us, so he should be with us....always.

August 19 was a very sad day.  My neighbor across the street had to put his dog down and since his dog and Duke were kind of like friend here he asked us to bring Duke over.

Well Duke went into the fenced yard with his friend.  There was steps up to the porch on the side of the house.  Duke decided that he should walk up those steps.  Let me tell you that it was not a good sight to see.  I was on the other side of the fe3nce, but I watched.  It was painful to watch too.  Duke made it up to the third step and then his legs gave out on him and instead of rolling back down the stairs, he rolled off of those stairs.  He was already in so much pain from just walking over to the house.  He could hardly make it back home.  That is when I knew it was time.  That was a very sad day.

I called our Vet and they told us that we could bring him when we could get him in the car.  OMG the thoughts that were reeling in my head.  The anger that I felt.  I asked them if they know of a vet in the area that could come to my house and put my dog down.  They did recommend someone and we called on that Monday to set it all up.  I also had to call a pet cremation to get him and do their thing.  Our vet wanted $500.00 to do it all and it would be cold and dry and we just didn't want that for Duke.  The vet that we called did it and was a whole lot nicer and compassionate and so were the Pet Cremation Company.

I don't do much crying for Duke because I live with Duke day in and day out.  Almost all my time was with Duke since his Vertigo years ago.  So I felt kind of relieved when he body went limp after the first shot the vet gave him.  He was in so much pain and the meds stopped working well and then we had to go to aspirin and even that didn't help him after falling off the stairs.  

He did not leave his body or the house for days.  I still think that Charlie feels his presence in and around the box.  

Charlie misses his greatly.  My husband misses the morning and evening walks with him.  We all miss him jumping into the car for a ride or to the park.

What I miss is telling him Good Morning every morning and waking him up to go outside.  I miss giving him the last bit of my breakfast, lunch and dinner. I miss brushing him and hugging him.  We had other names for him too like, Big Gallute, Big Brown Dog, Dukers and maybe a few more that I can't think of right at the moment.

After his body went limp and I was petting him for the last time something else occurred to me.  When I got to his belly area there was almost nothing there.  I mean there was no mass as in body mass.  Then I thought...he had a growth on the back of his butt.  We had called the vet and they told us that when we could get him in the car to bring him.  Well we will never use that vet every again.  I looked it up in one of my natural health books for dogs and cats, written by a DVM and it looked and sounded like he had a backed up anal gland.  I could squeeze it and it would shrink only to return to the size and grow just a bit more the next day.  The vet said that I was doing things right with the warm compresses......

But, I was thinking that I was making it worse instead of better.  After petting him and feeling how empty his body was, that was when the thought came that that growth might have been cancer.  He did have that years ago and many times it does come back and with the tract record of the other animals that we had had died from some form of cancer or auto-immune disease.  That very well could have been why he was also so bad the last few days of his life.  That growth had to have been painful.

Whatever, he is not in pain anymore and he can get up and down and run around without any pain.

His most favorite place to lay was under the front deck.  So I will leave off with pictures of him enjoying the view that he had when laying under there.

Duke’s New Friend

Duke’s New Friend

Sampson

Duke has a new friend.  His friend doesn’t come around much but when he does Duke and him play around.  They play tag, but things are changing for his friend.  His friend is getting older and his hormones are starting to kick in. His friend also has a sister and they came by yesterday morning to visit me.  Duke was not out yet as he was still in bed fast asleep.  They were around for about an hour and then they both left.

His friend did come back later in the evening and Duke was outside.  My husband got to see his friend too and that was fun.  He allowed my husband to put out his hand and I am not sure if he let him touch him or not.  I can touch him and he also wanted to play with me too.  I did rub his back and tried to see what was on his sides.  They were just spots that he was shedding.  He liked being scratched between his ears.  I also rubbed his neck and he did enjoy that.

Duke and Sampson

If you haven’t been around my fb page or read any of my articles then you would not be guessing that what Duke’s friend is. He is a male deer.  His antlers are just coming in.  Last time that we saw him was the day of the big snow storm where we got 42 inches.  I don’t know where this deer sleeps.  I don’t even know if he and his sister sleep together.  I do know that someone raised them.  We have been told that and we also seen her walking through the woods with them. 

I think that I am going to call the male deer, Sampson.  I don’t want to call him anything and I fear for his life here in these big woods.  I know that they did not raise these deer on purpose or know what the dangers would be when they started growing up.  They should have called the local Wildlife Center and had them raise them in their sanctuary. 

Eating My Rose Bush

When he comes around now, I had to push him away from my rose bushes.  He was eating them like they were candy.  No I also know why I have a bare area in my garden that I have my Irisises and Lily of the Valley’s in.  He ate them all up.  Now a normal wild deer wouldn’t go near places that I have my pinwheels in, but he did.  It was so funny though when I saw him put his nose right down into the pinwheel and sniff it as if he was going to munch on it.  I don’t have much money to put into my vegetable gardens this year and maybe there is a good reason for that.  He and his little sister will eat it all up because they are not afraid of man or anything else.  They used to be afraid of the cats, but not this time.  He chased my one cat from the perimeter of the yard to the front deck.

Another thing that was hilarious was when my husband went outside and took Duke for his evening walk.  Sampson, was really into eating our grass and not paying much attention to anything else.  We may not need to cut the grass if Sampson and his sister come around more often.  Well my husband and Duke were about halfway down the road and Sampson lifted his head up and seen them and he took off running towards them.  That deer walked with my husband and Duke and even came back with them.  That was funny and so cute. 

We do have lots of wild deer that run and live here in these woods.  They are huge.  There were about 12 deer in a herd that ran across my yard and down into the ravine about a month ago.  They stood about 7 feet tall at the top of their head.  They were all females.  They were amazing.  They didn’t stop to make friends with anyone.  They were a herd just running through the woods.  Sampson and his sister will never run with the herd and I am afraid that they will eventually kill Sampson and his sister.  That is the way it is in the wild.

Sampson

News From The Allen's Pets June 14 2015

Oh my it has been a while since I last posted on this blog.  There has been so much happening here. I wish that I could get a picture of all my animals in the same picture.  Ha!  I doubth that will ever happen.

Sidney is doing great.  He is gaining lots of weight too.  I must cut down on the food that I give them. He must be up to 17 pounds now!  He only weighed in at 14.7 when we got his checked out and his last round of shots a month ago.  He truly is a youngster around this house.  He loves to play with the Red laser dot, but he loves me to swish and swash and pounce the hand held toy up and down and round and round so he can jump up and try to get the feathers on it.  He already broke on and I had to replace that with another feathered toy.  I do love that he has gotten Charlie playing with those toys now too.  He needed to get more active and so he has.  The thing is, Charlie will walk away after about 5 minutes, but Sidney...he wants to play all the time.  As soon as I put my feet on the floor Sidney is up and wants pet.  I go to the bathroom and he wraps all around my feet and ankles.  I have step on him a few times.  He just meows and then leaves me alone for a few.  He wasn't to play first thing in the morning...before I have the chance to feed all the outdoor cats, the indoor cats and before my first cup of coffee.  He truly is a teen with all his energy.  He is about 3 years old the Vets told me.  I do believe it.  I Love the Boys!!

My gurly Girls, Shadow and Sunshine are almost totally outside now.  Both have choices....one to come inside with a teen aged cat who is Sidney and Charlie who bugs them.  They don't have many places to hide inside.  Or they can stay outside with Mikey who loves to bat them on their behinds and get them going.  He did that to Shadow last night while is was sitting on the porch.  She was going across the driveway and he just slowly walked up behind her and touched you behind.  She went off on a trade and the neighbors must have though there was a fight.  No fight, just Shadow giving it to Mikey.  When he got his fill of terrorizing her he came back on the deck and terrorized Sunshine and she rolled off the deck.  He has done that twice now while I was in viewing distance.  She is OK, but they both have more places the hide than from the other boys in the house.  It is warm too and they seem to like the warmer temperatures.  They also have their cat houses to hide in when it rains.  I cleaned them out yesterday and washed the padding and blankets that I had in them.



While taking Sunshine's bed apart and cleaning it out I found a few wasps nests in there.  They were on the Styrofoam lid that is under the bin lid.  I took it out and left it is the air for a few until the bedding was dry to put back in.  When my husband came home and a neighbor came to call I went back outside and got stung on my left wrist by one of those wasps.  All I did was walk out the door.  I did not bother it at all.  Boy did that hurt!  I have never been stung my a wasp before and wow, it just hurt so much.  I ran into the house screaming Ouch and put some baking soda paste on it for a bit.  Man that did not alleviate the pain.  So I then took a couple of Benedryl's just in case.  That did not get rid of the pain or the swelling.  It did make me drowsy though and I thought that I was going to go to sleep so I went to bed.  This all happened about 5 in the afternoon.  8 o'clock come around and I did not go to sleep and every time that I moved my arm it hurt really bad.  I took Advil PM and by morning the swelling was all gone and so was the pain.  My husband got rid of the nests shortly after I got stung. A few came back around to start or find their nest and today I will have to take the cat house apart and make sure that they did not start a new nest.

Frederick also had his time with me too.  Last week while I was dealing with tendinitis in my right wrist, I did something stupid.  I did not have my wrist brace on that day.  I went and gave him some catnip to make him happy and he loves that stuff.  He is a good boy, really.  He is the only one that can still smell and enjoy the catnip for days after the freshness has gone.  So he was rolling around in it and I put my hand under his chest.  He was already "stoned" by then and turned his head around my hand and bit me.  He bit me so hard that he punctured the back of my hand and on my thumb that already was in pain from the tendinitis.  That added insult to my injury and could not type or use my hand for a week.  It is doing good now.  What an adventure that was.  I did not hit Frederick.  He knew that he did something wrong and ran to the other end of the deck.  I only asked him why and told him that I would be back.  Poor Frederick.  He stayed on the deck until I could get my wounds washed out.  For three days after that and still today he will be right on the deck waiting for his food.  He has gotten much more trusting of me and the bonds that we have are stronger.  We still do not have the money to get him fixed but that doesn't seem to be a problem around her much since all my other cats are fixed.  There is another stray but he only comes once in a while.  Frederick doesn't seem to bother anyone anymore.  I know that he knows that this is now his home and he even gets along with the girls and Mikey too.  He does want to come inside though and I cannot let that happen.  He is not fixed and will spray.  I already have a female that does this and for days I can't find where the smell is coming from.

Duke is having a hard time now that he is up in his age.  This is where most of our money has gone and why we just cannot afford to get Frederick fixed right now.  In order to get Duke more of his painkillers we need to get him a 6 month checkup.  There is this new rule now that the government has put on these PET meds.  It makes me mad and lots of others who also have pets do not understand it at all.  Now all Duke's meds are considered CONTROLLED SUBSTANCES. Now my husband and a co-worker and myself have asked ourselves and commented to each other about how a dog is going to overdose on those meds.  We even asked if they were going to test his blood or the owners blood to see if we had taken any or too much.  The GOVERNMENT controls too much of our lives.

So it so happened that Duke somehow lost a toenail.  I mean he lost if to the end of his toe.  It did not bleed much when I ripped it off because it was just hanging there by a strand of fur.  I put lots of triple antibiotic ointment on it and wrapped it up the best that I could, but that lasted about 10 minutes.  He was licking it lots too and we had to stop that.

We made an appointment that afternoon for Duke.  We had a friend help us get him in the car.  THAT is the main reason that we have not got him groomed or to the Vets since last September.  He just will not get into the car anymore.  It is no problem getting him out.  So our friend got him in the car and we went to the vets and our friend followed us there to help us get Duke out of the car.  We were early, but that was better than being late.

Duke's visit was very stressful for Duke and Denis and I.  Duke was in much pain as expected.  When they took us to am exam room, they put us in a room all the way in the back of the office.  We took a few turns down the corridor.  The room was a much bigger room that we had been in before and it was usually in the front of the office behind the secretarial center.  The things that I notice right away was the Cat and Dog statues with angel wings.  Then while sitting there waiting for the Vet I saw on the two shelves about the counter three plaques that said something about how our pets are loved after they had died.  I mentioned this to my husband who was sitting beside me.  Duke was laying on the cool floor.  When the Vet came in she commented that she hasn't seen a toenail break off past the quick like that before.  Duke has been falling down a lot for no reason and what I think was happening was that the toenail was getting under his foot and he loosing his balance that way.  The vet mentioned that she didn't see any neurological signs that would make him fall like that.  She also commented that same thing when we told her that he had gotten wobbly as of the last few weeks.  She kept mentioning that we were just trying to get him more comfortable.  My husband and I both picked up on that.  When she said that she wanted to take blood from him to see where we would go after that and left the room with Duke, I lost my composure a bit.  She came back a few and told us that his levels were all good and better than she had expected.  That was a bit of a relief.  She also said that he had an ear infection.  That could be the wobbliness because I know when people get an ear infection sometimes their balance is off.  I was also wondering if his Vertigo had come back.  I will post that story in about a month to tell you the difference between Vertigo and a Stroke.

So we were sent home with wipes, ear wash, antibiotics and his pain killers.  My husband and I take turns doing his ears and every time he comes in from outside the one who lets him in wipes his toe.  Oh the Vet also said that if the antibiotics didn't work on his toe that she would have to remove it.  Duke is 16 years old and I don't think that I want him to go through with that.  I also know from experience that when they have that kind of surgery at that late age, they don't usually get better.  So Dennis and I had to make a very painful and sad decision then.  We decided that when he stops taking walks that was when we are going to end his life.  His quality of life will be very low at that time and there will be no recovery for him.  That is what is really making it hard for me right now.  His next appointment is in 6 months.  I do not think he will be around that long, due to his toe and age.

So this is the update to the present today, Sunday June 14, 2015.

Until Next Time............