Adventures in the land of Duke

Our new dog is a sweetie and we have all fallen in love with him. He has added a little more adventure to our lives and even took a couple years off of mine! He is wonderful with the kids and likes to play.

On Wednesday afternoon, the kids had taken him out to meet the neighbor kids, who he also loved and brought him back in the house. "T" then decided to go back out and Duke bolted out the door. I was on the phone about to leave a message when the kids came running up to me crying and telling me that Duke was gone. I did not have on any shoes, but I ran out the door to try to call him. Duke was having the time of his life running all over exploring at top speed. He thought that this was one of the best games EVER! All these humans trying to get him and he could get so close and they couldn't catch him! Did I mention this was just the time school was getting out, so there were cars everywhere. There is nothing like sobbing kids, trying to catch a run away dog you've had less than 24 hours and then watching said dog almost get hit by a bus and a car to stop the heart! Oh yeah, then there was the police officer that stopped to ask me if I was going to be able to get my dog back. He was very nice and willing to help, especially after he saw "T" sobbing. I was praying the whole time and God must have worked in the little beast's heart because I told "T" to go get some treats and he ran back to the house and Duke followed him in!!! This lasted about 10 minutes and we took several trips around the block, but seemed to be much longer!! The kids were upset at Duke, but really, in his world we are just people he is staying with for awhile and aren't really his home yet! We have rules in place now for both kids and dog to hopefully keep this from happening again.

We had a two year old over yesterday. He was great with her. He even let her lead him all over with the leash, so I don't think we'll be calling him "Killer." :o)

Today, we all had to be gone, so I decided to leave him upstairs with the door between the upstairs and kitchen closed. We had already tried gating him upstairs, but the gate ended up at the first landing. We gave him his toys and a huge rawhide bone, closed the door and got ready to leave. I carried stuff out to the van, came back for another load and there at the door was a very happy Duke. He even looked a little proud of himself. The latch is a lever type, so he used his paw to open the door. I couldn't help but laugh. He got to spend the day in the bathroom upstairs which he did not escape from.