Princeton Markan Blue...aka, Smokey

When Angie and I decided to get married in 1984, I worked nights in the computer room at a bank and went to school during the day. Since I worked nights, we both agreed that it would be a good idea to have a guard dog at home while I was away. Only problem was we disagreed on which breed of dog to get. She wanted a Doberman Pinscher and I wanted a pit bull. Just like all good marriages, we compromised. She wanted a Doberman, I wanted a happy wife. We got a Doberman.

Smokey was a blue Doberman that we purchased from someone here in Monroe. Blue Dobies have a grayish-blue tint to their coats. Some would even call it smoky...hence the name. If you think Duke and I are buddies, you should have seen me and Smokey. We went together like peas and carrots...or maybe like Lieutenant Dan and Forrest Gump.

Our first home was rather modest...728 heated square feet. It had two bedrooms, one bathroom, a kitchen, and a living room. We had one television and we couldn't afford cable. So we could only watch whatever the rabbit ears on the TV would pick up, which back in '84, was three channels. On Friday nights at 10:30, we had a choice of watching wrestling, wrestling, or wrestling. We usually chose wrestling.

Another problem was the TV itself. There was no remote control...you had to turn a knob located on the TV to change the channel. Did I mention that TV was used when we got it? After years of use, the knob had broken off. So, I had to use a set of pliers to turn the shaft that previously held the knob. As you would expect, I usually sat really close to the TV set. Well, strange thing...Smokey enjoyed watching TV too. It didn't matter if I sat on the floor, in a chair, on a bean bag, or on the couch, Smokey wanted to sit in my lap. He just enjoyed being around me.











But Smokey really loved Angie. He especially loved when Angie would lie down on the couch because he knew she'd let him lie down with her...or on her. Sometimes Angie would put her arms behind her head as she lay on the couch. If Smokey happened to walk by when her arm was poking out, he'd sit on her arm. It was really quite funny.











One of my favorite pictures of Smokey was taken the day I was gazing out the window. Much to my surprise, Smokey hopped on the bed and stared out the window with me. Angie walked in and captured the moment with a camera. Truly, he was man's best friend.



After John was born, we realized that we weren't giving as much attention to Smokey as we had before and it broke our hearts. Then, not long after John was born, we found out that Meredith was on the way. So we made the decision to find Smokey a new home. We learned of a gentleman who trained dogs to work with paraplegics and quadriplegics. We contacted him and allowed him to take Smokey. We later learned that Smokey was trained to work with a quadriplegic boy who lived in Columbia. We never got to see Smokey again but we felt good knowing that he was helping someone with a greater need than ours. We still missed him, though. He was some dog!