Roseville Family Adopts Celebrity Dog

First news first: We did it. We adopted Duke. When M and I arrived at the RAGOM picnic we did not know what to expect. About 200 golden retrievers (pure and mixed) carvorting around the park. The dogs up for adoption, like Duke, were wearing colored bibs, blue for boys and red for girls.

After talking with the foster mom, M and I took Duke out for a spin. It's like leading a horse! Hard to get him started; he doesn't respond to a gentle pull on the leash as much as a voice command. Just say his name softly, make some clicking sounds, and you're off. When he moves it's horselike - graceful, but you know there's a lot of animal there.

Several picnic-goers recognized him, "Is that Duke? The one who sits in the pool?"

"Why yes," we'd say.

"Honey, look - it's Duke - the big boy who has that cute pool picture on the web site."

And on-and-on. M and I had our picture taken by several people we didn't know. Actually they just wanted Duke's photo - but were gracious enough to let us pose along side him.

Duke is pretty tired now. He's lying on the floor having one of those doggie dreams where he snorts and his legs "run". Duke and the rest of the dogs participated in a 5K walk/run this AM. I was told that Duke walked most of it, but a few times broke into a trot. By the looks of him he ran the course twice - with another dog on his back! Not exactly a long-distance star.

He's made the acquaintance of Roscoe the kitten. Roscoe is much more interested in him than Duke is interested in Roscoe. The little kitten has done the "halloween cat" pose several times - arched back, hair on end - but Duke just smiles and wags his tail.

What's interesting is that he and M hit it off immmediatelhy. Since coming home, Duke's been out and about the neighborhood a little with M. He even participated in the neighorhood lemonade stand. When I went to call M and Duke in for dinner, the dog was wearing a "sandwich board" type sign advertising Lemonade.