Duke

DUKE Born 03/1996 passed 2/2007

aka: Dukeage, The Lumpage, The Floor Anchor, Moose. Duker

Duke is a love. We got Duke from one of my supervisors at work. Andi was a single mom who had 3 young boys. The dog was basically bought for them. The boys loved Duke as did Andi, but they were not exactly sure what to do with this huge pupper. Duke did not like to listen and he LOVED to jump on people. Duker is not a small dog. When we got him he was underweight, but still weighed close to 70 lbs at 9 months. He spent a majority of his time outside fending for himself. He drank the pool water, and since his food was left outdoors in the bag, it would get spoiled and wet, and Duke did not have a lot to eat. When Andi was looking to get rid of Duke, my better half said he would take him. At that time we only had Allie and Lad (two other collies) I had just moved to one state with Allie and Dan was living in another state (don't ask, it gets rather complicated) and had Lad. So Dan took Duke to live with him and Lad.

Lad was not impressed with this new addition. He had just lost Allie, his play partner and was having to share his place with this HUGE collie. Allie was a normal sized collie...Duke is Bigfoot in collie clothing. Duke promptly made himself at home and even at 9 months tried to take on the Alpha position, while Lad was basically trying to position himself in that position. Lad is a collie/sheltie mix so is on the smaller side, and even though older then Duke, was constantly getting overshadowed by Duke. After a period of time Duke more or less let Lad think he was alpha, but then Duke would try and assert himself in the alpha roll. Lad would walk by Duke with his tail in the air, and Duke would lose it. Walking with ones tail up is a sign of the "Alpha position" in the dog world. Duke wanted none of this and a fight would ensue. Being the bigger dog Duke more or less expected to be alpha in his mind. No matter what we do to treat Lad as alpha, Duke just throws his weight around and poor Lad takes the brunt of it.

Since Duke was so poorly fed as a puppy, and was not getting regular vitamins and nutrition, he has suffered some brain damage. Things just don't sink in with Duke...that or he just wants us to think he is stupid so he can get away with things. Duke loves to sleep on his back (unusual for a dog his size, now at 95 lbs), and nothing can make him move once he is sleeping this way. Normally he likes to lay against something to keep him propped up on his back, so any wall will do. He was with me for 3 months and used to sleep against the wall at the entrance of the hallway. Asking Duke to move fell on deaf ears. Nudging him to get out of the way was useless. I used to have to grab him by his back legs and drag him out of the way, and make sure I propped him up against a wall so he could sleep. Despite Duke being such a lumpage, when outside that dog can move. He likes to chase things around the backyard. God forbid anything that cannot move at lightening speed is out there when Duke is. One morning Duke was found in the hallway intently playing with what looked like a ball. Hmm it sounded a bit petrified when Duke tried to pick it up. Upon closer inspection it was discovered Duke had found himself a turtle and decided it would make a great chew toy. Poor turtle. There were a few other occasions after that, when he found Mr. Turtle in the yard again and decided to make him a chew toy.

02/15/06 Duker has been having some issues with nerve damage and arthritis in his back legs. For the past 2 days he has had extreme trouble standing, walking and relieving himself. A visit to the vets showed that Duker was not going to get better and it seemed his kidneys were also starting to fail. WE laid Duke to rest this day knowing his condition would not get any better and he stood the chance of going into renal failure. Duke dear baby, you will be missed terribly. Your daddy Dan loved you dearly and your gentle nature will be missed dearly

Dan does not have a lot of pics of the dogs, but I am encouraging him to take some more so we can upload them here...in the meantime here is what I have so far.

Oh boy, a close-up shot

Hope this wall is strong enough to hold me up