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Saturday, February 26, 2011

Milly's Bad Hair Day

Dear Duke,

My mom cut my hair with scissors and now I look like a mangy street dog instead of a beautiful sheltie-corgi. The cats are laughing at me.

Milly

Milly, pre-scissor attack



Dear Milly,

My mom says that your mom has many special gifts but cutting hair is not one of them. Try to accept that your mom was thinking of your comfort because hot weather is coming. She loves you and she meant well. I hope this thought brings you comfort when the house cats are humiliating you.

Duke
 
AAARRROOOOOOOO!

Friday, February 25, 2011

WHAT?

Mom just linked a blog from a GUINEA PIG and a blog from a C@T to my page! This is not to be tolerated! Those are critters I was brought up to hunt, chase, capture and maim! If any of my Airedale pals find out about this, I will be humiliated. What? Mom is pulling out the bag of pig ears from the pantry. She's opening it...

Ahhhhhhh. No rodent or cat ever tasted like this! Maybe no one will notice Mom's reading list.

aaarrrooooo?

Buddy's Bad Boomerang

It rained last night. Hard. And me and Maggie and Buddy were outside when the rain started because Dad kicked us out after Mom fell asleep. At first we were having fun in the rain because our airedale fur coats don't soak up water very much. Maggie and I were playing our favorite game of Body Slam Buddy. See, Buddy is not a graceful longlegged ADT like we are. Mom calls him a little black pit bull bowling ball because that's what he looks like when he comes running up at you. Maggie and me made up the Body Slam Buddy game because it's so much fun to watch him roll when we hit him. She'll run at him and hit him and then he'll roll around and then he heads towards her to jump on her and I run at him from the other side and catch him off guard and hit him with another body slam. It's fun because Buddy never has figured out that we do the same thing every time and he always goes rolling around the yard in circles after we hit him. Now, usually we don't do this when Mom and Dad are outside with us because they want us to play nice and they say that Body Slam Buddy is a mean game and it can lead to fights.

Anyway, last night while we were playing the rain started. We had a blast! After about an hour of rain, the yard got real muddy and that was even more fun. We were running and jumping and sliding all over the place. It was soooo much fun! Maggie was looking like a totally black ADT. Of course, Buddy is already black so you really can't see how dirty he is but he was feeling pretty happy about being muddy too.

Except I guess maybe me or Maggie hit him a little too hard one time. There might've been a couple of teeth involved around an ear. These things happen. Buddy screamed, Maggie howled and the backporch light came on. Then the french door flew open and there was Mom.

"Get in the house!"

The game was over. Dog-gone it. Maggie hauled tail into the house and wiggled all over Mom, who shrieked about cold wet dogs like it was something bad. Buddy just stood in the yard and looked at Mom. He's such a hard head sometimes. It was obvious that I needed to step in and help. I mean, it was about 1:30 in the morning with a heavy rainstore coming down and Maggie had just soaked Mom. Mom wasn't very happy. 

I barked at Buddy. Buddy barked back. I laid my ears back and told him to "Get in the house" with exactly the same tone Mom had used.  He growled at me. That little black pitbull bowling ball growled at me. So I lowered my head and ran straight at him. My long skinny legs help me go really fast. I barreled right into Buddy and knocked him over. He went rolling. Then he jumped up and ran for the back door. I was right behind him.

Buddy ran all the way to the door and then stopped. Mom was in the middle of the den, drying her legs off with a towel. Maggie was rolling around on the rug, making sure it would smell of happy games for a long time. Maggie heard Buddy on the deck and she jumped up! I hit Buddy from behind and knocked him into the den. Maggie hit him broadside and he crashed into Dad's recliner and then boomeranged right into Mom's legs. Mom went down with a crash and Buddy jumped on top of her and licked her all over to make sure she was okay. Maggie ran for the dog den and I ran for the futon. We've seen Mom get mad before and we know to hide.  Dad came down the hall and Mom let him have it but good for leaving us outside in the rain. She said some mighty bad words and she said them mighty loud. Dad just helped her get up and make sure she wasn't hurt. She has a little limp this morning and she's still pretty mad.

The rest of the night, Maggie and Buddy and I slept in our crates. Mom went back to bed. Dad finished the night on the sofa. After all, it was his fault for leaving us outside in the rain.

AAARRROOOOOOOO!


Boomerang Buddy

Wednesday, February 23, 2011

What's in a name? You're not gonna believe what's in a name!

One day I asked my Mom why I was named "Duke". She gave me a big hug and told me that I was named after a Great Man and his Great Dog.


In Mr. Wayne's own words:

"There've been a lot of stories about how I got to be called Duke. One was that I played the part of a duke in a school play, which I never did. Sometimes, they even said I was descended from royalty! It was all a lot of rubbish. Hell, the truth is that I was named after a dog!" ~ JOHN WAYNE
That’s right. As a boy, Mr. Wayne never went anywhere without his big Airedale Terrier who was named Duke. People around the neighborhood called the boy “Little Duke” and the Airedale “Big Duke.”

Yes, America. Your greatest Cowboy was named after an Airedale Terrier. That’s because terriers are the smartestest bestest dogs in the world and the ADT is known as the King of Terriers. Mom says we should be called terrierists. But she smiles when she says it. Usually.

That story about Mr. John Wayne is true. So let’s all do a high five for the Cowboy Hero who was named after a dog!

AAARRROOOOOOOO!