Goodbye Duke

Harry's cousin Duke has just passed away so sad news. Duke was a Doberman Labrador cross, and belonged to my sister.

Duke taught Harry to swim. Well, Harry used to be so besotted with Duke that he followed him everywhere, and one day Duke ran into a local Abingdon lake to try to get away from the pesky new puppy.. It only came up to Duke's tummy. But a very surprised Harry suddenly found himself swimming.

You can see in this picture taken a few years ago that Duke would rather be left in peace.

In his youth, Duke was quite a handful.

Like many big dogs, his legs started to give way. He'd also gone almost blind. So the sad deed was done. He was taken down to the vet wrapped in his favourite blanket....