The Munhollands: DUKE - R.I.P. 10/01

"He's an easy dog to love, but a hard dog to like (sometimes)." - Jim Munholland III

I believed that quote for a long time, but in these last few months, I liked him a lot (maybe because he stopped jumping and licking excessively). I have some guilt I wasn't always nicer to him. Duke (a.k.a. "brown dog", "dukas aurelius") was Jim's 30th birthday present.

When Kellan was born, Jim had to stop taking Duke for walks with them because he would go nuts if anyone came near. He followed us from one home to the next - 4 in total. To this day I swear he was tougher as a puppy then the kids were as babies - ok, maybe for not as long a period of time. The dog managed to sniff out and destroy anything of worth I owned. He ate my leather, Coach briefcase - buckle and all (granted Kellan ate my Burberry purse). Nothing could be left on the counters. Chocolate didn't seem to kill, or even bother him. He had bad gas...often.

Besides all his faults - he was such a good dog. He put up with tons of tormenting from the kids and never, ever snapped at them; just sat patiently until they were done doing whatever they were doing. He loved house guests, to their dismay. Duke loved to perch on the stairs (see previous blog, but worth showing pictures again). He was so protective of all of us. It was hard to watch him these last few months limp around. It was the first time we could ever have him off his leash and he loved just hanging in the front yard with us. I have no doubt he was still a happy dog.

Duke stories:

1) Duke failed obedience school. On the day he was to graduate I came home and found that he had eaten his crap and then threw up all over the place.

2) Duke pooped on our X-mas tree (a real one) his first X-mas with us.

3) My brother, Tim, came and stayed with me when I was pregnant with Kellan. Tim was lying on the floor in our family room, when Duke decided to lift his leg, and pee on him.

4) The night I was in labor and on our way to the hospital with Kellan, Duke ran away. He was fast back then, my dad and Jim circled the neighborhood as I sat in the car wondering if Kellan was going to be born in the Expedition. They eventually got him back. Up until the last couple months, he bolted whenever he could - sometimes we didn't think he'd come back, but he always did.

August 2011

Jim had Duke put to sleep on Friday 9-16 while the kids were at school. Jim left Dexter in the car when he took Duke in. When he came out, Dexter asked "Duke, Duke?" - Jim said "Duke's bye-bye". Dexter cried and cried, "No, no, Duke...Duke no bye-bye." They got on the freeway 5 minutes later and Dexter said "Fish, fish" (for goldfish to eat), and that was the end of that. Zoe took it the hardest, she's been so, so sweet to him lately. She bawled on and off non-stop. Kellan didn't seem to care, until we came home from dinner later that night and he saw the Duke pictures on the wall, at which point he completely lost it, followed by Zoe, followed by Dexter (copying his siblings), followed by me. Poor Jim

There are a lot of pictures below, and there are a lot more - we didn't even have a digital camera back then. He was our first "baby".

My dad always loved Duke, I hope they're playing ball together free of their pain; missing us as much as we miss them.

...Fast forward to a week later since I wrote 90% of this last week, but never got it posted. The kids talk about Duke with a smile on their faces (if they even talk about him at all), no more tears. Jim and I are still adjusting to not having him around especially at night when it quiets down. However we have learned from our mistakes and will not let our new Rottweiler "Monster" in the house, he's nice and comfortable in the backyard.