04/26/2026
First and foremost, I want to thank all of you for sending love and prayers.
Deuce was the ultimate definition of what it is to be a ride or die. Since he was 8 weeks old, he has literally never left my side. We have walked tens of thousands of miles side by side. From every local public lands, to the forests of Hocking Hills, to the pure Michigan northern wilderness, taking in 30-mile views from the mountains overlooking the Shenandoah valley, to miles of Outer Banks beaches, to the city streets of Washington DC, we walked life together.
Today I walk alone.
After Sally and I’s first dane, Zane, unexpectedly passed, I made up a crazy unrealistic criterion that we wouldn’t get another unless we found a male harlequin that had merle spots and a front right black sleeve. If we were going to replace Zane then he needed to look like Zane. About 3 weeks later a breeder friend of my sister reached out to me to tell me that she has had those similar markings in past litters and that she had a litter due that following week. It was a Tuesday, March 26, 2019 when she sent me the first, days old pictures of Deuce. We visited the litter and Deuce at 6 weeks old and he not only checked all the boxes, but he came stamped of approval with a perfect heart shaped spot on his left shoulder.
He was definitely sent to us from a higher place.
He grew with the wild freedoms of the woods, chasing deer-dogs and tree-dogs, exploring where his nose would take him. He socialized with people and fur babies on the daily as he learned the family business of pet grooming literally from the ground up. He quickly became the “Big Guy on the Block” and learned to “Get Little” on the floor to allow the smallest of fur babies to feel comfortable and meet them on their level. While he enjoyed his day job, his love was when he heard the slightest jingle of keys and knew we were headed out on an evening adventure.
He was the “Best Guy Ever”.
Admittedly he lived better than most of the people he met, but he always remained humble and was truly a gentle giant. His life was not all roses and creek beds however, he had some huge hurdles along the way that would test his strength and love of life. In May of 2020 at 14 months old, he returned from the woods with a huge gash on his chest. That gash was more than a superficial cut from hard play in the woods. It was determined that he had a puncture wound that was going to require more than a few stitches at the vets office. Emergency surgery revealed, from my opinion, that he had been shot with an arrow that pierced through the top of his left lung, missed his heart by less than an inch, and penetrated the bottom of his right lung. The great surgeons at MedVet Worthington split his chest at the breastbone, removed his bottom right lung lobe, his top left lung lobe and a portion of his left middle lung lobe. With around 30% of his lungs removed, he was back to living the outdoor life within months.
In August of 2023 at 4 ½ years old, while chasing shark-dogs and kites on the sands of the Outer Banks, a missed landing of an Olympic jump for a kite landed him flat on his chest. He did not let that stop him from enjoying the waves that week, however by the time we returned home the inflammation and build up of fluids from his beach shenanigans caused his right middle lung lobe, now with room to move, torsioned and sent him into shock. Once again the phenomenonal surgeons at MedVet Worthington and another emergency surgery, they removed the right middle lung lobe through his ribs on his side. With being in shock and such an invasive surgery, the surgeons were reluctant to give him any chance of surviving the surgery and warned me that if he recovered, he would be a couch potato and I accepted those terms. True to his nature he fought through and he came home after 3 days of ICU care.
Though he did slow down from his younger years, he never became a said couch potato. The clinking of my keys would wake him from a dead sleep and he was up and to the door ready to go full bore. In after thought I should have limited his gumption but he was full of life and enjoyed it to the fullest. At 7 years, 5 weeks and 2 days old, on the Friday evening of April 24, 2026, he developed a throat clearing sounding gag. By Saturday morning the cough became more prominent, and his breathing deepened to a labored abdominal heaving with each breathe. Another emergency visit to MedVet Worthington and a chest x-ray later, radiology confirmed pneumonia and saw concerns of fluid build up around his heart. An emergency call to the cardiologist to preform an echocardiogram diagnosed he was in heart failure. His limited lung capacity and his non-couch potato lifestyle had taken a toll on his great big heart. With treatment for the pneumonia was to push fluids and IV antibiotics, the treatment for heart failure was diuretics and to remove fluids. We were at an impasse and the most horrific and devasting decision had to be made.
To my “Big Deuce Head”, “The Best Guy Ever”, “The Big Guy on the Block”, “My Big Baby Guy”, you took a huge part of me with you but I know one day soon, we will be side by side again and we will have a whole new tens of thousands of miles to walk and explore together. Until that day, I will forever love and never forget you.
