Duke was a Yo-Chon which is a ‘designer dog’ breed (Yorkshire Terrier & Bichon Frise mix). It’s not easy to describe in a few words how precious Duke was to our family over almost 17 years. He loved being with us & we loved him. If you are fortunate, at least one special pet comes along in your lifetime that finds a forever place in your heart. Duke was that pet. He was always there to greet us but later in life when his hearing started to fail, he didn’t always hear us coming. His preference was to go with us whenever possible & he voiced his dismay at being left home. We rarely journeyed out of town for the day (or longer) that Duke wasn’t right there with us, relieved he was going too. Whenever Duke would hear something being chopped on the cutting board for a meal, that was his cue to come into the kitchen hoping to get a bite of carrot, one of his favorite foods, or the aroma of meat cooking would prompt him to come in for a tidbit of it. Duke was such a great little hiker: he went on dozens of hikes & hundreds of walks. This photo of him is at Aneroid Lake in the Eagle Cap Wilderness in 2015. It was a twelve-mile hike for those short little legs! To an outsider he would have probably fallen into the ‘yappy little dog’ category or to the child we advised not to pet for fear he might nip them, he was probably the ‘cranky little dog’. But all that didn’t matter to us when he was curled up on our lap cuddling, he was just our sweet little Duke. Thank you, little Duke, for making our lives better and all the memories to treasure. We miss him dearly. Duke will be forever in our hearts!

Thank you, Dr. Severin and Dr. Kala, for the donation.