McDuff & The Kids

The book I wrote about McDuff did not contain all the stories about him. I could probably write another book because he was so unique. The kids in the neighborhood loved McDuff. I’d hear the doorbell ring in the summer. “Can McDuff come out and play?” one of them would ask when I came to the door. Several others waited in the yard.

I’d let McDuff outside. Someone would retrieve the stick from its designated place, give it to McDuff, and the game would begin. The kids would try to catch him and take the stick away. It never happened. When they became tired, he would slow down, let them almost touch him, and then take off again. They fell on the ground laughing. Big kids, little kids; they all had fun.

Another thing had them ringing my doorbell. I told one of them that McDuff had photo ID. “No way. Dogs can’t get an ID.” I showed him McDuff’s Therapy Dogs International badge with his photo on it. Evidently he told his buddies who didn’t believe him. One by one they came to find out for themselves.

A chapter in Life with McDuff entitled “McDuff Loved Them All” sums it up. He loved everyone and everything. Well, everything except monkeys, birds, and the UPS truck. Cats and ducks were favorites. He loved going to his veterinarians and didn’t want to come home after boarding with them.

I will always miss him and be thankful for the time he was in my life.

LIFE WITH MCDUFF: A SCOTTIE WITH ATTITUDE

LIFE WITH MCDUFF: A SCOTTIE WITH ATTITUDE

I’ve owned many dogs in my lifetime, but none like McDuff. Scotties are a breed apart. Their appearance, intelligence and stubbornness set them apart from the other breeds. They have attitude — and plenty of it.

Just the way they walk with that peculiar gait, those protruding eyebrows, flowing beard, and extra-long, erect ears commands attention. And Scottie owners know that they get a lot of that.

Scottish terriers are often described as “dignified.” A neighbor saw me walking him one morning and struck up a conversation. From then on, he referred to McDuff as “the professor.” I didn’t have to ask him why.

I once heard a Westminster Kennel Club Dog Show announcer say, “The Scottish terrier is the only breed of dog that knows it’s smarter than its master.” McDuff’s off-the-chart intelligence combined with supreme stubbornness and frustrated me to tears. I write about the ways he outsmarted me in my book, Life with McDuff: Lessons Learned from a Therapy Dog.

It took me a while to realize what was going on because I thought, he couldn’t be that smart; he’s just a dog. But I soon found out, often to my amusement or dismay, that I had been outsmarted by a canine.

My friends at work clamored for “McDuff Stories” and he provided plenty of them. They howled at his exploits and my frustration. I write about many of them in Life with McDuff.

McDuff was special enough for me to write a book about him. And it is doing quite well. One of the blurbs on the book cover is, “Think Marley and Me, but with an intelligent dog.” That sums it up nicely.