While at his Grandparent's Farm Duke likes to go on Adventures. He may go visit the neighbors horses, herd wild foul, or try to get lucky with some local Coyotes. Recently during his morning sabatical he decided to go to check out the local tail. He headed out to a nearby coyote den while the females were in heat. When we called him back Duke came booking back and two coyotes were chasing him towards the house. We are not sure if the two Coyotes were the females trying to call him back for more or the males trying to get into a bar room brawl with him for messing with their ladies. Either way close call Dewey...he's such a Good Time Charlie.
Wow, your dog is Johnny Knoxville!
Johnny Knoxville
Up for Anything
The kind of pet that can leap tall fences in a single bound (or not, but give it a shot anyhow), Duke is the original Jackass, Johnny Knoxville!
Going through the pain so you don't have to, Duke knows that he trots a fine line between funny and stupid, but he doesn't care. He's laughing about it all the way to the pet store. His over-the-top antics make you grimace with fear and you often find it hard to believe that he actually enjoys playing the class clown. But Duke laps it up and continues to defy the odds, despite your warnings and concerns. Other males in the pack tend to be a little jealous of Duke, but the females find him simply dreamy. A die-hard good ol' boy, Duke is more of a General Lee type than a Knight Rider, but give him enough time to think things through and he's sure to find a way to wreck both vehicles at the same time.
Sorry we've been gone so long. We have been so busy. Here is the short version to get you all up to date.
In June we had an unplanned move to the city of Chicago. The house we were renting was rented to a new family under our nose.
We did not get our Cabin in the woods house. Apparently the recession has made it very hard to Appraise houses that are "Custom" Built. Without an appraisal you cannot close on a house. The reasons they couldn't appraise the house are 1.) There were only 2 houses of similar construction sold within 6 months in IL. They needed 2 houses of similar construction sold within one month. 2.) If they appraise a house to high and the buyer loses that house in foreclosure than the banks lose money on the house. 3.) If they appraise a house too low than it lowers the value of the community. Basically no one wanted to take a chance putting a fixed price/number on the house.
We asked our landlord to give us 3 more months in our current residence and they told us yes but didn't put it in the contract giving us a total of one week and a half to find a new place to live. This was not easy considering we are a family consisting of multiple large dogs and cats.
We grabbed the first place we could find that would accept 3 German shepherd dogs. It isn't small by any means. A decent size with 3 tiny Chicago sized bedrooms. This place is in all the 'top 5 worst neighborhoods in Chicago' lists - the order changes but the neighborhoods don't. Luckily having three "scary looking", large breed dogs has kept us safe thus far. Our neighbors are all terrified of dogs. They will not even talk to any of us so we feel very isolated. If they see us they scream bloody murder and jump on picnic tables or the tops of their cars to get away from us...even though we are smiling at them not looking the smallest bit aggressive. They are not very smart because we all could easily get them from their chosen perches. They are not very high off the ground. There are no places to walk us safely in the neighborhood. Luckily we still have the farm to visit on the weekends and Momma does work for a Dog Day care so we do have places to go...although we do not play at work mostly we just relax. We got our city dog park tags but there are no nearby dog parks so we haven't been to any yet.
June also came with 2 more surprises...maybe 3. June 23rd marked 2 very special occasions. Pop's first nephew was born. His name is Haven Allen. By default it is Momma's first nephew too because they are both the first born children of their households. While uncle Jeff was going on and on about his first child and how masculine he was I decided to take advantage of the situation and Tie with Paisley Anne. This union brought forth 4 handsome baby boys August 21st. I will talk more about them later because they are my pride and joy but first more about June. June 27th was a very bad fight between Momma and Pops which led to talk of a separation. This separation talk was nullified on June 28th which was Momma's birthday and also the conception date of a little human baby still cooking. Humans are not very in tune with their bodies and therefore these silly humans did not know they were having a baby until September 1st when the signs could no longer be swept under the rug so to speak.
August 21st was not supposed to be the birth date of Paisley and my Puppies but they decided to grace us with their presence 4 days early. We had a little black and cream bi-colored boy come first. He was born breech and dry so Paisley had to pull him out by his toes...resulting in a few of his toes being nipped off at the first digit leaving him with a few less toenails on each foot. Other than that he is a very healthy boy. He was named Charlie by his new family and can be found on Dogster if you'd like to friend him. The second boy was a very light colored sable who is following after his father's footsteps. His family named him Lucious and call him Lou for short. Third was the darkest sable boy. His new family named him Bruno. Bruno was the most inquisitive puppy. He would always go exploring -even before his eyes were open. He is the most independent and his mask turned out just like mine even though it started out looking like Paisley's. The forth and last boy was also a sable. He was the heaviest of the litter and has been named Tedesco which is Italian for "German" BOL! His family has not given us many updates or pictures but he seems to be a large boy like his sable brothers. They said they might call him Teddy for short...but we haven't heard much since. Charlie is the smallest at 4 months he is 36lbs and skinny like his mother. The other boys are all over 50lbs and are estimated to be 100lbs by their 1st birthdays just like me. This is to be expected since they were all really large babies. At 5 days old they weighed almost 2lbs each.
Now about the human child. Momma didn't even know she was pregnant until after the puppies were born. She was tired often but since she works two jobs and had a litter of puppies to chase after -not to mention Momma Paisie who was a very maternal/aggressive/protective Miss - she figured her fatigue was justified. She never had morning sickness or any of the other normal signs to jolt her towards the thought that she could be pregnant...also because silly doctors told her it was impossible and 4 years of unsuccessful attempts seemed to confirm this fact. It wasn't until the last couple days of August when she had terrible cravings for every food place she unsuccessfully tried to drive past that she thought she'd take the big test. The test said positive so she made an appointment with a doctor to get an ultrasound which showed she was 10 weeks pregnant already almost through the entire 1st trimester. She is Due March 31st which is just days before Pops birthday on April 2nd. They are waiting to see what gender the baby will be...which is only right. I had to wait to find out about my 4 boys.
If you're wondering about our feline family here are your answers. Isis Luna was the ki-ki who moved with us to Chicago. The new landlord wasn't too happy with us bringing a kitty with us along with the rest of the family, but we weren't leaving anybody behind.
Without the needed exercise we found the ki-ki to be our only form of entertainment. Momma had to break her no ki-kies outside rule and started letting Icy have some outside time so she could have some canine free time. There was just not enough space inside for her to catch a break. She was fixed and got her shots and medications up to date so she'd be healthy and happy as an inside/outside ki-ki. All our attention and mouthing her made her feel like she had to nip us back. This was okay with us we've got thick coats that can take ki-ki teeth and nail batting. Unfortunately we made her a bit temperamental. Sometimes she would walk up to Momma or Pops and act as if she wanted attention but then nip them when she would get some. After months of this it never got any better. Sometimes Icy would come into bed and cuddle up to Momma like always and then nip her. One time she nipped her face. Momma picked her up and tossed her outside so fast she didn't know what hit her. She was invited back in within 24 or so hours. A month later she bit Pops on the hand and that one cut him a bit. Pops said she wasn't invited back inside. Not that he was badly hurt or anything but Pops was also concerned with the new baby on the way. If Icy bit him hard enough to poke holes in him then she might try with the baby. So they looked for a better fitting home for her. It was getting cold out so she didn't stay outside but we did find her a home that was more fitting. We told them all about her and also told her new family that she can come back if it doesn't work out. So far it looks like everything is going great for her. She is back to her sweet self. Some animals just don't adjust well to a move. She is the best ki-ki ever and deserves to be happy just like we all do. We are very sad to see her go. Even Pops commented that he didn't want to see her go on the day we had to bring her to her new family. It was on Black Friday and it was definitely a black day. We all still miss her terribly but as long as she is happy she is in the best place for her.
For the most part that has put us up to date. We are all getting by. Momma is now in her 27th week and our pups and Icy are doing great at their new homes. Any questions? Ask. We'd be happy to tell all. Momma is still working but she is slowing down since Christmas. It was too tough for her being pregnant and all. She took 3 days off since and is planning to be off work soon. She is trying to make it until the end of January but we will see. We do appreciate her being home with us all day.
Tuesday Momma's friend came over with her two youngins. They are afaid of animals so Momma put all three of us dogs away.
The children fell in love with the cat but Icy was getting irritable - as cats do.
So, Momma asked the little girl, Amanda, and the boy, Gus, if they wouldn't mind her bringing out her big, quiet, best friend...namely the Dukester. The kids were concerned that I might bite and Momma told them that the worst I would do was step on their feet --which I did repeatedly. I think I have 4 left paws, BOL.
I came out and took a hankerin' to the youngins right from the start. The kids were having a great time with me aside from the occasional pain of a 115lb dog on a tootsie. Then the 5 year old girl asked if they could ride me and Momma Quickly and Clearly said NO. She told them that if they rode me they could hurt my back and Momma loves me too much to let that happen.
The kiddies quickly picked out a movie to watch "Finding Nemo" and sat down to watch it. Getting up every few seconds to pet, poke, or pull at me...as youngins are prone to do.
I was starting to get annoyed so I found myself a good corner to relax. It wasn't far just in the frontroom blocking the door. Just far enough where they had to seek me out to give any attention but of course those little rascals are relentless.
I started the lip licking so Momma would get the cue that these miniture adults were getting minutely annoying. She did and she called them back to her.
Then the ki-ki came back and got the blunt force of the attention for a half hour. Momma kept warning the kids that if she made a meow she would be getting angry and then watch out.
But Icy was on her best behavior. Although looking tortured and very unhappy she did not strike out with a swat or a back off little nip like she gives me. Phew!
When it was time for the kids to leave. Momma's friend asked her to put the kids' shoes on while she ran to the car. Momma was busy putting shoes on Amanda's feet after strugglin' with Gus moments before and told Pops to go check on Gus who had wandered out of the front room into the kitchen toward me and the ki-ki.
Well Pops got there just in time because that little 3yr old sidewinder perched his dippered butt right a-top my back and took hisself for a ride.
I was like what the heck...that's an extra 30lbs I don't remember packing on.
Pops got him off quickly and Gus had a faint 'git along li'l doggie' smile on his face.
Gus doesn't talk much but I'm sure he tried to explain the fun ride he just had to his Momma and sister on the ride home.
Good thing Amanda didn't see or I'd be pony'n it up all evening.
As you may know our ki-ki, Isis, got her spay surgery last week Tuesday. She is recovering nicely. I got to play with her a bit today. Momma let her out of her recovery room and we had to be very gentle with her.
Momma took some pictures on her phone of Paisley and me layin' on the bed with her. Hopefully she can figure out how to get them from her phone to her computer so she can show all of you. They are kinda cute. I cannot help her with this because I am a big lug when it comes to technology. Ask me about tractors or 'bout hunting and I can bark your ear off but ask this country boy about a cell phone and you'll get a head tilt and an empty expression. Sorry but you can take a country boy out of the sticks but you can't take the sticks from a country boy.
Love,
Duke Boy
