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.

Wildlife and Pets When Season's Change

What a morning!  I was sleeping quite comforting in my bed and here I hear a shrill sound in my ear.  I barely opened my eyes and here is Little Bits sitting next to me yelling at me to get her some food in her dish.  Oh there are other food dishes and they have food in them as well.  I told her that in an attempt to get more sleep.  She wouldn't have it. So I threw off my nice warm comforter and got out of bed.  By then she was in her favorite spot in my office on top of a box.  I grabbed her and she pitched a fit and scratched me and put holes in my arm.  I put her by one of the other bowls of food, but she wouldn't have that either.  Her and I had a time of it this morning.  She fled and hid somewhere in the house.  The other outdoor cats were waiting on their breakfast too and I had to fill up the bucket that I have in the house with cat food that we store in a large metal trashcan outside.

I feed Frederick first because his dish is on the back deck and he needs to be eating before the other cats on the front deck....so he doesn't fight them.  He is not fixed and we cannot even afford the discounted fee they have with Spay Today.  My husband wants me to take him to the animal shelter but I cannot see him being stuck in a cage for months until someone adopts him.  He has all his maleness and fights with my other male cat, Mikey...who has been fixed a long time ago.




I get all the cats fed and even fresh food in the dish that Little Bit's eats from.  I make my coffee in between all that hustle and bustle.  I get my first cup of that hot delicious wake me up further liquid.  The creamer that I use to get my brain to work is Peppermint Mocha.  It is true that Peppermint gets your brain started.

On my way to sit outside on my back deck and pet Frederick and I stand at the banister and look over and into the woods, when I hear a commotion going on in the woods.  I look hard to see what it is and then I hear the noise.  Turkeys!  A few of them it sounds like.  I try to see what they look like and how many there are, but alas I do not.  They were running down the ravine line and through the woods behind my house.  It only took a few minutes until I could hear them go down into the ravine in the back of my house, some 200+ feet to the small stream that divides the properties up and then silence.  I know if is Autumn now and the calendar doesn't have to be when the official start is.  Oh and the crows are back too!  They come and sit and cackle in the trees in the beginning of fall and then again in the beginning of spring.

Meanwhile Duke has gotten up and I didn't hear him.  Sometimes he is so quiet.  I tell Frederick that  I am going inside now and open the door and walk through to the living room to find a few turds on the floor.  This is the third time in about a week and a half that he has had uncontrolled bowel movements.  He is getting old and the last time that we took him to the vet she told us that we are just wanting to make him comfortable.  Of course I cried there.  That was about 4 months ago.  We decided that it would be time to put him down when he couldn't take his walks anymore.  That is going to be one sad day and I don't know how Charlie is going to react with that.  Charlie and He are almost inseparable at times.

The Season is changing rapidly here.  The trees are just about to change colors, but not just yet.  We have a couple of day or maybe even a couple of weeks before the get their amber, orange and scarlet colors.

I wonder what kinds of events we will have this coming fall season.

Sidney Is Trying My Patience

Newest Picture Of Sidney

Sidney has a problem and I do not like it one bit.  He needs to curb his desire to bat through the screen door.  He only does this when Frederick is on the other side, on the back porch at breakfast and dinner times.  I thought that I broke him of this but it doesn't appear so.  Yesterday morning I was going to go out to feed Frederick and opened the door.  Now Sidney has been good at moving from the door when I go to open the screen door, but not yesterday.  I wasn't wearing any slippers or shoes.  Well he smacked the bottom of my foot and his claw did make a puncture wound.  Oh My did that hurt!  I was bleeding all over the place.  I was trying not to walk on the Asian rug that we have in the living room.  I did smack Sidney in the head and then again on his behind.  I wanted to let him know that was not appropriate to do that.  Back to square one on this!

I have also been working on him to not go on or site on the small table in between the futon and the rocking/recliner chair.  I have to be consistent for this to work.  Sometimes he will get on it when I am busy doing from my cup or eating something or looking for a channel or program to watch on the TV.  

He is so cute though when he kind of like purrs.  It's not a purr perse' but he voices his thoughts to me by a rrrrrrrr that is trilled.  I don't know of any way else to describe it.  He KNOWS and UNDERSTANDS what I am telling him.  I also use the ACK noise and I point my finger at him. He understands what that means as he will cower down.  Then he will test me and get up and put his paw on the table and then I point and he will make that sound again and take his paw off the table.  We will go back and forth with this for about 10 minutes.  He does not win.  He does get on the table once in a while now, but all I have to do is point my finger and say ACK!  

He is slowly becoming a lap cat.  I think that is what he really wants when he tries to get up on the table.  I also noticed that why the lazer toy was there, it seemed like he wanted to get to that and have me play with him.  I put it up and he cannot get to it.  That may have been part of the problem, but he now looks at the table as if to test me again and I just say NO.  He then goes away. 

This may take a long time, becasue it has become a test of wills.  I will aslo keep the broom near the back door each and ever time that I need to go out or come in from there.

© Debra K. Allen a.k.a Lady Guinevere

I researched and wrote this article. Please do not copy and paste any part of this article, picture included for your own use. I will find you and report you for stealing.  It is my right to change any information therein at any time and/or change the location of my article. 

Sidney and Nikki

I am going to start at the beginning.  Beginnings are always a best place to start.  His beginning started OK, I am guessing.  He had a loving woman that took care of him when he was a kitten, got his shots and then got him neutered.  I was all good for him.  He did get that great start in life that all cats should get.

Then, the not-so-good part...  For some reason she had to give her cat up.  She gave him to a couple that had a 5 year old son and this son loved this cat.  All good, right?  Not so good.  He was loved(?) but was kept in a garage to live because the owner said that he did not have the time for him.  My question was then why did you take him in.  Oh I did not ask him that, I was too upset what he did before that. 

Sidney was dumped on us.  I had just told my husband that I could not take care of anymore cats.  I already have 5 and that was enough.  These people need some Karma to come back on them for what they did.  It was not only about their cat, but also their dog and that is how we met Sidney.

One day in December of 2014 there was a commotion in our yard and I went to the door to see what it was all about.  Well I found out when I looked out my French doors on my back deck.  Now you have to come up quite a few steps to get to that.  There was a very excited tan and white dog out there.  I tried to get it, but it ran back down the steps and so I went out the front door to look for it.  That was when I found Mikey, who isn’t afraid of much out here in these woods, up a tree.  He has never been treed like that.  I was worried that he wouldn’t be able to get back down since the tree didn’t have that many branches low to the ground.

I finally got a hold of the dog.  I found out that she had tags on a color.  I looked at the tags and well she wouldn’t hold still long enough for me to take a look at the tag to see who she belonged too.  You see I live at looks like a dead end.  I live off of a loop that runs at the bottom of the road that my road is jutting off of.  Many strays and drop-offs have come here.  They know they will be treated right and with respect.  Duke was not outside and I put her on Dukes rope.  I had to shorten it by many feet as his rope is about 80 feet long.  She was there for a couple of hours until my husband came home.  Then I brought her inside. 

Cats flew everywhere as she was not accustomed to them.  It was not as if she was going to hurt them.  She wanted to play with them, but they did not want to play with her.  She was way too excited of a dog and cats don’t usually like that much activity.  She tried to play with Duke; he liked it a little bit but not too much.  Heck Duke is 15 years old and he does not do well with play at this age. 

We finally were able to see what tags that she had on and called the veterinarian that she got her rabies shot with.  They would not give us a name or number to call.  They called the persons directly and then gave them our number.  Anyway, they could not get off of work and so, being the kind lady that I am, told them to take their time.  Really there was no rush.  She was beautiful and her name was Nikki.  So that was a good thing and I called her by her name.  She was part husky and part wolf.  I could see that clearly.  I talked to the lady who called us first and she told us all kinds of things about her.  She told us that she was 5 years old and that she gets out of the fenced in yard all the time.  Well that was a RED Flag.  I have never seen this dog before running around the woods or the roads and neither had my husband.  She definitely was not 5 years old either.  She was younger than that and that was based on her activity level.  The lady talked about a cat that she was going to be taking to the pound and dropping off.  The pounds are always full of cats and I knew that he would be put down.  Many of them are around here.  These kinds of people do not respect their animals.  That is how I get so many strays.  I told her that I loved cats and dogs and all the strays and will not turn them away.

The man and his 5 year old son and their other senior dog all come to pick up the dog a few hours later.  My husband was on-call that night and had to leave before he got here.  It was all good, or so I thought.  I will get to that later.  He picked up the dog and put her in his truck.  We talk a few and the little boy asked all kinds of questions.  He was cute.  Then he brings in a large, actually huge crate with his cat in that they did not want anymore.  I could not turn it away and he told me that I could keep the crate and all the towels that Sidney was laying on.  Let me tell you this cat was traumatized.  I will write how he has done in the next blog.  I just want to bring you up from the first time that I met Sidney.

A few nights later Nikki comes to the back door again.  So I call the number that we have for the owners several times and leave about three messages that their dog is here and they need to come pick her up.  They finally called back and it was the man and he told me that he never owned a dog and just moved in there a few months ago.  My husband got really upset.  He walked to the house where Nikki lived and knocked on the door.  There were cars in the driveway and the same one that they came and got Nikki in the first time.  My husband came back home with the dog.  They would not answer the door.  He also said that the gate was wide open and a broom held it so that it could not close.  What the lady before told me is that they do that and she will come back home and they find her on the back porch in the morning.  Another Red Flag and both my husband and I both saw this and we were in agreement with this.  After we ate dinner my husband walked to dog to the owner’s house.  They only live about 5 houses up the road.  He caught the guy standing in the driveway. I did not know of all the conversation that went on but when my husband came home he was livid and he told me that if he wasn’t a nice guy that he would have punched the guy in the face. 

The next day my husband tries to get in touch with the Humane Society and tell him the story of Nikki and that something should be done.  I don’t know how this all ended up but we never was able to get in touch with them.  I have not seen Nikki since and I do hope that she has a loving home now.  I hope that she was not hit by a car or left to fend for herself as a drop off someplace else.

Now back to Sidney and that will be in my next blog.

© Debra K. Allen a.k.a Lady Guinevere

I researched and wrote this article. Please do not copy and paste any part of this article, picture included for your own use. I will find you and report you for stealing.  It is my right to change any information therein at any time and/or change the location of my article. 

What Children Learn When They Have A Pet
 

Children learn lots about life when they are allowed to have a pet. Parents and children alike learn lots about having a pet in the home. It is a wise choice to raise a pet in the home for everyone. Besides all this there is lots of fun and companionship that is shared throughout the life of the pet and the life of the child.

In this article I will discuss 5 things a child and the parent's as well learn from owning a pet.

*Responsibility*

The first thing that they learn is Responsibility. They are responsible for taking care of this pet. They are responsible to make sure it is healthy and loved and put above their needs. It also gives the child something they feel they can control. Most children are controlled by someone else such as parent's teachers and the like. To learn and to grow they also need to have a feeling of some kind of control in their own lives. This is returned with lots of love and kisses and hugs and companionship that will last the pet’s lifetime and will be remembered for the child's lifetime.

*Sharing* 

A child will learn to share themselves, their food, their hurts and pains and will do this often. It is a good way to get the child to begin to understand that sharing is a thing that is needed to help others. It is especially important if there is only one child in the family. Sharing is so important for society to work and this is the very beginning of that.

Sharing also comes back from the pet. Dogs and cats will sleep with the child and will be there to comfort the child when they are sick. Some pets have been known to appear when the child is at death's door. Sharing is always a good thing to learn.

 *Patience* 

Patience is a hard one to learn for children. It is hard because children don't have much of this. They are at the stage that everything needs to be on a NOW basis. Ha-ha, much like some people in society can't wait something out for something better to come along. When training a pet it is paramount that the child be patient. Pets don't learn the same as humans and the child gets a sense of that.

A pet has patience too in that it will wait diligently by the door for the child to come home from school. For a while at least until the pet learns the timing and when the child will come home. They will wait patiently for feeding time. When the child does re-appear they are given lots of tail wagging kisses and hugs in return and reward for coming home to them.

*Caring* 

Some pets need more caring than others. Dogs and cats need brushed often so that their coat is shining and healthy. All pets need touch and pet as well as humans and this is the way they can have that in each other’s lives. When the pet becomes ill they need some extra caring. They may be on meds or have a bandage that needs taken care of and the child should learn how to do this. In that respect the parent's teach the child to do this and therefore makes this a family affair. I am not sure on the statistics of this but in my observation a child with a pet is more stable and treats others better or more equal than those who haven't owned a pet.

Get a pet and teach them both about the goodness of sharing, caring, patience, responsibility companionship and most of all the love they can stand and more. It doesn't have to be a cat or dog. Fish also give these same qualities and can be trained too as well as Reptiles, Hamsters, Mice, Gerbils, farm animals and birds. It all comes down to the way we treat our pets is the way we will treat other humans in this world.

© Debra K. Allen a.k.a Lady Guinevere

I researched and wrote this article. Please do not copy and paste any part of this article, picture included for your own use. I will find you and report you for stealing.  It is my right to change any information therein at any time and/or change the location of my article. 

Your Pets and Feeding Them A RAW Food Diet

Feeding Pets Raw Foods

All the talk about giving your pets Raw Food such as Chicken bones, Beef and Table Scraps. I realize that the Veterinarian Profession wants to keep animals healthy and safe, but there comes a point to which Natural is sometimes or even most times better than what the industry says. Dry Pet Foods serve a purpose for those big companies that make it----to make money.


Raw foods are good and nutritional for cats and dogs. Think of it this way--what would a dog or cat in the outdoors, in it's natural state be eating? Other live animals.Natural Foods. That is not what makes their lives less enjoyable or healthy. It's the fighting between animals and the killing by humans that do it.

In my observances about the natural state of my outdoor versus my indoor cats I learned some very interesting things. For one, the cats that live outdoors all the time don't have many fleas, but my indoor/outdoor cats have many fleas. Now my indoor cats will get fleas really bad. Is there something missing in the equation? They all get fed the same things. Only the outdoor cats get wild things on occasion. When the mommy cat brought me al her kittens and they were teething I gave them semi-frozen chicken wings. They loved them and they even fought over them even though I gave each one their own bone! I did no harm to them and it was very good for them. I did have to take them away from them when they got to bigger part of the bones, only because they would try to stuff the whole piece in their mouths at once and a few of the kittens got it stuck in their mouths! You just need to keep an eye on them. My dog, however, didn't really care for them.

Raw foods has gotten a bad name over the years. Chicken bones are healthy for your pets, if they will eat them. Just don't cook anything that you give raw. The cooking and heating process makes the bone brittle and that is what kills dogs or cats.........not uncooked ones. Raw means raw--uncooked. Here are a few sites in which you can get more detailed information from:

• RawFed.com

.....A prey model diet is one that is meant to resemble, as closely as possible, the diet that carnivorous canines and felines have evolved to eat, and have been eating, for many thousands, if not millions of years. It's a diet that is modeled on the kinds of whole prey critters that are consumed by our domestic dogs' and cats' wild counterparts........

• The Myth of "100% Complete and Balanced" Processed Pet Foods

,,,,The pet food industry has been running in place and causing immeasurable harm to pets for at least 75 years. It presents an egregious example of scientific hubris and commercial irresponsibility. Whether you have pets or not, what follows will underscore and substantiate everything the book has said thus far regarding how wrong society can be on health and nutrition. Only in this case, our wrongness falls upon innocent pet victims. ,,,,,,,,

© Debra K. Allen a.k.a Lady Guinevere

I researched and wrote this article. Please do not copy and paste any part of this article, picture included for your own use. I will find you and report you for stealing.  It is my right to change any information therein at any time and/or change the location of my article.