Dugan Pretends He's A People!

Monday, June 2, 2014

Dugan the Dog has gone to his eternal reward!

    Dugan the Dog has gone to heaven!  
    They saved him a front row seat.

                      Dugan the Dog gets some air!

The greatest thing about having Dugan as a pet was that he was the nicest dog a person could have!  If you find any literature about the Irish Wolfhound, you will not read very far before you find the expression: “The Gentle Giant”.  We had the pleasure of having Dugan at our house for 8 years, ever since he was a puppy just old enough to leave his mommy.  During that time we never saw him snarl or growl in anger even once.  He never barked just because he heard other dogs bark and we never saw him bark at people.  Some people think I was exaggerating when I said we might have heard him bark at something he saw in the yard every other month or so.  When some one rang the door bell or knocked on the door he would start wagging his tail vigorously in anxious anticipation of seeing a friend. Dugan the Dog was in love with the whole of humanity, and he would have been happy to greet every single person so he could tell them so!  That’s why he liked seeing all the people while marching in the St. Patrick’s Day Parade.  He figured all the people were lined up for his benefit.   He was especially fond of younger children and was so loving towards them.

Dugan the Dog styling at the 2010 St. Patrick's Day Parade

Why must so sweet of a dog have such a short life expectancy.  It is typical for the giant breeds to have their lives cut short with heart problems and cancer while other dogs live 2 or 3 times longer .  Most Wolfhounds have trouble with joints and arthritis too.

Anyway, some months ago Dugan lost one of his rear toe nails.  We couldn’t tell if it fell out on its own accord, or if it got hung up on something and got jerked out.  It was a bloody mess for a few hours.  I kept a watch on it through the days looking for infection or other sign of trouble.  I was concerned because a co-worker had a dog whose first sign of cancer was loosing a nail and bleeding profusely.  Then suddenly one day Dugans foot was swollen like a club and a hole appeared in a pad (not on the toe) on his foot and another hole appeared further up on his ankle.  A blood tainted liquid would ooze out.  The Vet put him on antibiotics and the swelling went away right away but the hole in his pad never healed, and it seemed that a tissue was growing inside his foot and was trying to push out through the hole.  The Vet cultured to see what germs remained after all his antibiotic treatments and discovered staph and ecoli.  The possible drug treatments would destroy his kidneys and his remaining health.  I still suspect cancer but we never tested for it because we were eliminating bacteria first.  We choose to put him down while he was still bright and happy instead of torturing him with destructive treatments.


Our home is now empty and sad; we will miss him so much.  We are grateful he blessed our household.  If dogs go to heaven, they were saving front row seat for Dugan the Dog!