This here's Duke. Duke's a good ol' boy! Wait! Doesn't the title say Duke's a Girl? Yes it does, and yes, he is.
Isn't it fun how our dogs bring their own idiosyncracies and personalities into our lives? Duke has been a pleasure since I got her, but she wasn't always Duke. The story begins six years ago when I had to have Gypsy put to sleep. Gypsy was Hunter's mama, and besides him, the only member left of our once rather largish pack of six malamutes. Alone, Hunter withered. He missed his furry family! I decided to get another malamute to keep him company, and I went through WAMAL's website to find a nice, spayed female somewhat similar in coat and color to Gypsy. Her name was Precious. She was a foundling, and the people who'd surrendered her to WAMAL had 2 other boy dogs, and moving into a smaller home, had to rehome one. They had found her, no idea how old she was. They figured around 4ish. My neighbor and I drove out to Wenatchee and met Precious's escorts, a gal I used to show dogs with from Oregon. We fell in love with Precious, but decided we'd call her Karma instead, hoping to bring good karma back to Hunter, 8 years old, who was so darn lonely!
We drove back to Elk, Karma in the back with Jan's daughter Katie. We pulled in Jan's driveway and I jogged next door to bring Hunter over to meet his new friend on neutral ground. When he saw another malamute he was delighted, and strutted his stuff to impress. They became fast friends, and Karma showed her pleasure at her new surroundings by immediately submerging herself on both sides in a large muddy puddle. She loves the water! She doesn't swim, mind you, she only wades, but she sure loves to wade!
So began our life with Karma. The first week she came to stay, she saved our lives by waking me up when the electric heater malfunctioned. The repair man said if we hadn't noticed when we did (thanks to Karma barking loudly at the heater)our place would have gone up in smoke.
Once, while paddling in our pond in a one-man raft, Duke saved me by taking the oar and towing me safely to shore. She just kills me she's so funny! She tries to "save" me when I'm in the bathroom, because don't you know "awful things happen in there! Run, Run while you can, mom!" she seems to be saying, stomping her front feet and "rrrererrerring" at me
So where did the name Duke come from? The legend of girl dogs named Duke is a family joke, my brother nicknamed his girlfriends fuzzy little cutiepie shih-tzu "Duke" so his truck driver friends wouldn't think he was consorting with prissy little female doggies.
One day I had been playing with the dogs and had "good boy"ed Hunter and I accidentally "good boy"ed Karmie by mistake. The way she lit up when I called her "good boy" was hilarious. It was as if all her life she'd only ever been a good girl and now she was finally a good boy! She's been "good boy'ed" ever since and I decided to nickname her Duke after my brother's girlfriends beloved little shih-tzu, Rookie.
I've had several dogs who have earned many fun little pet nicknames over the years. Fuzzy Hogwaller, Pooter, Beelzabitch, Loo the Poo, Gyppiepoo, Licky Loo, Monkeybuns, and so on. What kind of fun (printable) nicknames have you given your dogs? Please use the "comment" feature if you like, or if you have pictures, you can email them to me! I'll post the responses I get but like I said, please only the ones I can comfortably print!
