Well, as I was getting out of the shower this afternoon, the phone rang. It was Duke's mom.

She called from an airport, as she was about to get on the plane for her flight home.

"Do you still have my dog?"

"Yes, the Dukester is still here."

"Is he on your patio?"

"Nope, he made it purty clear he liked it better inside."

She laughed.

"I do keep him inside. Thank you, thank you. You have just made my new year. Thank you so much. Can I bring you something special, anything?"

"No, please, not needed. We're dog folks - I know how you've been feeling. How long was he gone?"

She told the story. She had to leave him with her parents while she was out on a business trip. They had put him in the back yard. Being a indoor kinda dog, he escaped through the fence. The parents' house is only a few blocks from here, which solves the mystery of how he got miles away from the house without getting picked up, or knowing how to find his way back home.

It weighed him today, by weighing myself on the bathroom scale, then picking him up, and weighing myself again, and that took some gronking, to discover he weighs 79 pounds. Makes my eighty pound guess look purty good, doesn't it? :-)

I took him up to the neighboorhood bar where CG and I eat and drink a few times a week, as the manager is a friend and has a digital. She took a few pics, which I'll post as soon as she forwards them.

Duke knows something is up, I think. I told him that Debbie (not her real name) is coming to get him. He perked up at the mention of her (real) name, and alternates between coming over to lick my hands, like he's trying to tell me to make her hurry up, and sitting up by the door, sniffing through the jamb, and whining.

"Duke, relax buddy, her plane hasn't even landed yet. She''ll be here about 9:30."

(lick-lick whine)

About an hour to go...