Saturday, December 11, 2010

Ol' Duke

I had a few moments today as I waited on Jilda to finish getting ready to hit the road on our errands. We'd planned to get a Christmas tree today, but we ran out of time and decided to bump that until tomorrow. 
But I sat down to scan the blogs I follow for updates and I ran across one profile of a woman and her German Shepherd. This was a beautiful animal and it reminded me of the first dog Jilda and I got after we married. 
He was a magnificent animal named Duke. I was helping her dad do a plumbing job during the summer of 1974. Duke live at the house where we were working, but he took an immediate liking to me. He made every step I made all day long.
I sat out in the yard playing with Ol' Duke as we waited for the lady to write us a check for our work.  

Jilda's dad was having fun at my expense when he said "I think that lady's is going to give you that dog." I looked up in total surprise and said, "are you kidding!" 
She happened to be within earshot and heard him say what he said.
"Actually," she said, "we have a new baby and we were thinking about getting rid of the dog." She called her husband at work, and a few minutes later, the dog was mine.
I opened the tailgate and Ol' Duke hopped in, and he never looked back.
On the way home, I went by the store where Jilda worked and Ol' Duke sat out on the sidewalk while I ran in to fetch her. It was love at first sight.
We took that dog with us on all of our vacations. He went to the beach, the mountains, and even rode seventeen hours in the cramped cab of our Datsun truck when we drove to Michigan to visit one of my Army buddies.

We kept him thirteen years and when he died, we both cried as if we'd lost a child.
I hope the woman in the blog I read today, loves her dog half as much as we loved Ol' Duke.

13 comments:

  1. A wonderful post and tribute to Duke. Those furry four-legged great creatures do become children to us.

    Mason
    Thoughts in Progress

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  2. Such a sweet story! Thanks for sharing. Dogs can be such irreplacable parts of our lives.

    And thanks for finding my blog so that I could visit yours. :o)

    Cheers,
    Jackee

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  3. As for your acquisition of Ol' Duke, the word serendipitous comes to mind, both for you and for the woman who gave him away.

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  4. You can't beat the loyalty of a dog, and in particular, a GSD. Gunny is with me practically 24/7. Great story.

    Jane

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  5. I thought I'd pop over your lovely blog to say a big hello!! What treasured memories of Ol Duke! Thank you for sharing them here. I so appreciate how a death of a much loved and treasured pet could so break one's heart!!

    I hope you find time to get your tree!

    Take care
    x

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  6. What a great story. I love hearing these. Some people have a gift around animals where animals just sense something special in the person and respond better and create a bond that is indescribable. My late husband was like that and now my Bruce is also that way. I'll have to write a blog about 'Alex' our Collie sometime.

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  7. the dog obviously knew who he really belonged to.

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  8. A lovely story and a beautiful photo!

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  9. Lovely memories of Duke. That was something that was obviously meant to be.

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  10. Dogs really have a way of getting into our hearts, don't they? I'm glad Duke found such a loving home!

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  11. We had a german shepard growing up. they are great dogs!

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  12. What a beautiful story!! I have 'custody' of my oldest son's dog (3 years) while he's in grad school. At first I thought she was a lot of work, compared to the cats I'd always had. But I soon learned how much More companionship & love a dog gives!!

    My son just took a job offer in Texas last week. He'll move after he graduated in May. I am going to be very sad & miss.. Miss Pickles, when she moves to Texas in June with my son.

    Great post! Thank you for the visit and follow! I am of course following you back & look forward to read more of your stories!

    Have a wonderful week!!
    Blessings & Many Hugs,
    Coreen

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  13. Sounds like a lot of my blog-buddies love dogs as much as we do.
    Thanks y'all for visiting and commenting.

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