Duchess – Springer Spaniel Royalty

Don’t even get me started on Duchess…she came into our lives as a mature dog, I forget from where.  Though she was pure- bred, she had this goofy knot of fur on top of her head that made it hard to ever take her seriously.

My mom swore that she would never have an indoor dog, but somehow Duchess wound herself around her heart, just like the rest of us, so in she came...and stayed in mom's bedroom

She would fetch anything you threw, including rocks.  If you threw a certain squeaky duck, she would pick it up, retreat to some safe place, put the duck between her paws and lick and care for it as if it were a puppy.

She was also a baseball cousin of Snoopy.  Whenever we played a pickup game of baseball, she had to be there, and would frequently stop ground balls before they got to the fielder, and proudly take them to the pitcher, much to our dismay.

She was a great hunter, in spite of her goofiness, and she could talk…my she could talk!  Not just words, but sentences.  And she would only howl when induced…Jeff, Dave, me, or any of us could sit near her and start to moan, raising it up to a whine, then a howl, and she would follow right along, and keep going when we stopped.  We would laugh ourselves silly until mom yelled at us to stop.

When she passed, as all dogs do, it left a hole in mom’s heart that could only be filled one way.  I am convinced without Duchess, there would not have been a Marjon.