"Duke"

I think it is time to write something about our new dog "Duke." He is now 11 months old and still adjusting to his life with us. Remember when I wrote about picking him up at the airport and how when I looked into his crate for a moment I saw Emma staring back at me? How he was about the same size and had the same markings on his body that Emma did? I think I now know why. At first I did not want to believe it but I think Emma is with him.

These are the Emma traits that he has: he runs with the same gait Emma had, he has the same drinking problem (when he drinks half of the water falls out of his mouth as he lifts his head up), he dances around in circles when it is time to go for his walk, he gets cold very easily, he eats his food quickly-like he hasn't eaten in a year, at bedtime he sleeps in the living room and then moves to his bed in our bedroom some time during the night. One day I came home to find he had dug two holes in the yard in the same two spots where Emma always dug. Another day I heard him barking in the living room the way I had heard Emma bark a number of times before and I knew I would find Kate there teasing him with her chewy. She was.

Then there is his face, it is always changing. One minute he looks exactly like Emma, and then not so much, and then at other times not at all. Those times when he looks nothing like Emma I get the feeling I am seeing his real face.

I have been told that Emma is with him to help him bond with us and I believe this is true. All I have to do is look at him to see it.
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