3,500???

…HOLY SHIT!

Three thousand five hundred Doclopedia posts, folks! That’s just crazy.

I’m taking a few weeks off from Doclopedia posts, but they’ll resume on September first with a 365 Day Challenge to post only brand new themes. We’ll see how that goes.

In the meantime, enjoy the annual CritterCon write up, which starts in a few days. There will also be a few other posts about various stuff.

The Doclopedia #3,500

Alt. Cross Family Dogs: Duke

Full Name: Duke Alan Cross

Breed: Basset Hound

We had a basset hound, Sam, when I was a kid growing up in the wilds of Yuba County. We got him when I was 4 and he died when I was 17. The whole family loved him and I sometimes thought about adopting another basset, but didn’t get around to it for 54 years.

Duke was 100% basset in all ways. He loved people and other dogs, especially children. He was loving and funny and very stubborn. He would eat damned near anything and he loved getting into things to check them out. Like garbage cans and recently planted flower beds. He was also a big boy, maxing out at 65 pounds, just over four times Yoyo’s max weight. He wasn’t overweight, just big and solid, which made Yoyo’s attempts to wrestle him pretty funny.

Duke was, despite being neutered, a ladies man at the dog park. All the girl dogs regardless of size, wanted to meet him. He enjoyed the attention, and my wife nicknamed him The Dog Park Romeo. Yoyo never really had his mojo with the ladies.

The two of them would spend hours playing, then Duke would just lay down and sleep for an hour, which gave Yoyo time to dig more holes. They both hated squirrels, and we would often hear Dukes deep barks when the bushy tailed miscreants got into our trees. Oddly, he was fascinated by the parrots who would stop by. He would quietly watch them while his brother lost his mind.

Aside from a couple of ear infections and a bout or two of tummy trouble from eating the wrong stuff, Duke has been quite the healthy boy. He also loves to travel and gets very excited when he sees us packing for a trip.

As I write this, it’s June of 2034, the boys are ten and a half years old, seasoned world travelers, spoiled rotten, and very healthy for their age. We humans are now 80 and all four of us are living on the Big Island of Hawaii. We are kind of thinking they might be our last two dogs, since their vet tells us they have another 3-5 years to go.

But you never know. Whatever happens, we will love these two knuckleheads.

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