Whenever I saw Luke and Debbie in the ring, it always brought tears to my eyes.  Luke was the ultimate showman and commanded the attention he so richly deserved in the ring, and the adoration and special bond between Debbie and Luke was just amazing.  But to understand this special bond, I will have to tell you his story.

Luke with his favorite stuffie 

The following is from Debbie's memories:
When Luke was a 6 week old puppy, the litter was vaccinated, unfortunately with a bad batch of vaccines.  When the litter was 8 weeks old, they came down with two types of Para-influenza and Parvo.  Everytime a puppy went to the vet, it died.  Finally Debbie said, "Luke is not going to the vets".  He was receiving subcutaneous fluids every four hours and one of the problems was no one was on duty at the vet's at night.  So Debbie learned how to do this and for 5 days and nights, never left his side.  She just kept telling Luke that he was not going to die.  Later, he had to have massive amounts of Vitamin C, but those shots left him mentally scarred, and because of the pain of all those injections, it was a long time until he trusted anyone.  (He is named Luke after St. Luke, the patron saint of medicine.)  It took almost a year for Luke to feel comfortable with anyone but Debbie and during that time she spent a good portion of every day convincing him he could trust strangers and that he was wonderful.  Debbie promised him that if he would live he would have the best life she could possibly give him.  He was the ultimate couch potato, bunny chaser, kids toy destroyer, and went everywhere in the car.  Debbie called him a spoiled BRAT!!!, (but to me he was the ultimate Whippet).


A 6 month old Luke

With all the painful memories of Luke's puppyhood, it is little wonder that we often saw Debbie in tears after a special win.  This picture so depicts that special bond between Debbie and Luke.