Most people call him Duke, but his mom calls him “Nugget.” Maybe it’s because the blue pitbull loves chicken nuggets so much.
But not to eat them. Duke absolutely loves baby chicks. He completely fell in love with a lot of baby chicks his mom brought home one day.
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“It was very hard to separate Duke and the chickies,” Duke’s mom Alisha told The Dodo.
When Alisha took in a group of motherless chicks, Duke simply could not start his day without bidding them hello.
“He just wanted to see them so bad,” Alisha added. “He felt responsible for the chickens.”
Duke would peer over the box they sat in and would just stare at them in awe. When mom would hold one up to him, he would give it a good sniff.
Maybe even a few kisses. When mom would ask if he wanted to go see his “chickies,” his eyes would grow wide, and he would wag his tail in excitement.
Duke would just automatically go check on his chickie periodically to make sure they were OK.
“He had to baby them and nanny them. Like they were his own,” Alisha explained.
But Duke is pretty good at taking care of others. According to his Instagram page, Duke volunteers at a hospital as a therapy dog.
Getting Duke to end his caretaking duties for the night was difficult when the chicks were around.
Alisha would call Duke to come to bed, but he didn’t want to leave the chickies’ side.
He would just stand by the box and stare at them. He just wanted to stay in the garage all night with his chickies.
He begrudgingly came inside when mom kept calling him and walking away from his chicks very slowly.
Despite his obsession with these tiny fuzzy creatures. They wouldn’t stay that small forever and Duke’s parents couldn’t have full-grown chickens in their house.
So, Alisha found a friend that would take the four chickies in. Duke was VERY sad without his little chickies.
Alisha tried to come up with a solution and bought Duke tiny little chicken toys.
She wound them up and let Duke play with them. He was rough a first, but then remembered his chickies and how he needed to be gentle with them.
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“Once they started moving toward hin, he was so concerned like, ‘these are my babies. I should take care of them,'” Alisha recalled.
Duke also has a plush stuffed chickie which he loves to carry upstairs and bring to bed at night when it’s time to go to sleep.
Still, Duke missed his real chickies.
So, mom brought him to visit them one day. They were a lot bigger than he last remember, but he was definitely happy to see his old friends.
Check out Duke’s reunion with his chickens in the video below. It’s got more than 10 million views!
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