{"id":38274,"date":"2022-09-22T16:40:51","date_gmt":"2022-09-22T22:40:51","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/dexter-from-ouray-a-bona-fido-superstar\/"},"modified":"2022-09-22T22:40:51","modified_gmt":"2022-09-22T22:40:51","slug":"dexter-from-ouray-a-bona-fido-superstar","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/dexter-from-ouray-a-bona-fido-superstar\/","title":{"rendered":"Dexter from Ouray a bona \u2018fido\u2019 superstar"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"Dexter,
Dexter, a dog from Ouray who can walk upright on his hind legs, will march in this year\u2019s Durango Cowboy Poetry Gathering parade. (Courtesy)<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/p>\n

Dexter, a dog from Ouray \u2013 and a bona \u201cfido\u201d (ugh!) superstar \u2013 can take himself for a walk, thank you very much.<\/p>\n

The 7-year-old Brittany spaniel began walking upright after an accident when he was just turning a year old, said his mom, Kentee Pasek. He escaped from his yard while sniffing a deer trail scent and his front legs were run over by a car. Pasek and her husband brought Dexter to a vet in Montrose where, while everything was fine with him internally, his legs were in pretty rough shape. One was amputated, and the other was a little trickier.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe thought, \u2018Oh, he could get a prosthetic, and at this point, he\u2019s a year-old puppy chewing on everything. And I was like, \u2018No, I\u2019m not buying a prosthetic,\u2019\u201d Pasek said.<\/p>\n\n

The vet stitched up Dexter\u2019s remaining front leg and while it seemed OK, the elbow wasn\u2019t.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe vet sent Dexter home to us in like three days because he knew that we could handle rehab \u2013 we brought the dog in just totally chill about it,\u201d she said. \u201cBut he wasn\u2019t putting weight on that tripod leg, he should have almost immediately become a tripod, just running around. And he wouldn\u2019t \u2013 he\u2019d kind of gingerly put it down and pop up. And so we ended up having to pin it.\u201d<\/p>\n

And Dexter, being a boisterous puppy, wasn\u2019t having it \u2013 he broke the first set of pins, and later attempts weren\u2019t any more successful.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe had like five or six surgeries by the time this was done,\u201d Pasek said. \u201cAnd it finally took a year to finally get him out of the cone of shame.\u201d<\/p>\n

Dexter\u2019s accident happened in March, and it was in May when she first saw him walking upright.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe had to take him down the front stairs to go to the bathroom. So I had my coffee made all ready to do this, took him down, came in to grab my coffee, came back out and he was at the front stairs sitting on the porch and he wasn\u2019t putting any weight on that front arm, and I was like, \u2018how did you do this?\u2019 And then I thought, \u2018I\u2019ve spent so much money, I don\u2019t know if I want to know,\u2019\u201d she said, laughing. \u201cI checked my phone because I didn\u2019t think anybody would believe me \u2013 I wasn\u2019t sure I was going to believe what I was going to see, and I put him back in the yard, took the phone and I have video of him going upright up the front stairs. He doesn\u2019t walk upright at the front stairs now, but I had that. And I was like, \u2018Oh my gosh, what are you doing?\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n

After this, the Paseks had a custom wheelchair made for Dexter.<\/p>\n

\u201cHe was walking around and it really did help that front arm gain more muscle mass,\u201d Pasek said. \u201cIt was awesome \u2013 for about a month.\u201d<\/p>\n

Dexter was determined to move around his way, and the world came to know about it when a woman traveling through Ouray happened to catch Pasek\u2019s mother walking Dexter in his way. She posted a video of the two to her TikTok account and it blew up. Pasek ended up making an account of her own for Dexter to tell his story, and the rest is history.<\/p>\n

Dexter had a pretty significant social media presence before his accident \u2013 Pasek\u2019s daughter had him on Instagram and he was fairly popular on a Brittany spaniel page \u2013 but his numbers now are huge: He has 909,400 followers on TikTok, 155,000 followers on Instagram and 44,000 on Facebook. And he has his own website. He\u2019s been on Jimmy Fallon. And in commercials and countless TV news broadcasts. Oh, and he did a show in LA that hasn\u2019t been released yet, so Pasek can\u2019t talk about it.<\/p>\n

\n

If you go<\/h4>\n

What:<\/strong> Meet and greet with Dexter.<\/p>\n

When: <\/strong>Immediately after the Durango Cowboy Poetry Gathering motorless parade, which begins at 10:30 a.m. Oct. 1.<\/p>\n

Where: <\/strong>Buckley Park, 1250 Main Ave. Note: For more about the Cowboy Gathering, check out The Durango Herald<\/em>\u2019s Sept. 30 A&E section.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

Now he\u2019s coming to Durango, and I don\u2019t know about you, but I can\u2019t wait to get my hands on him! He\u2019ll be walking in the Cowboy Gathering Parade on Oct. 1, and if that\u2019s not cool enough, after the parade he\u2019ll be holding court at Buckley Park for a meet and greet, so be sure to bring your cameras.<\/p>\n

Pasek said Dexter is the consummate showman.<\/p>\n

\u201cThank goodness he\u2019s a dog and not a child or a human. No, I mean, he is so chill. But he\u2019s a showman. He knows,\u201d she said. \u201cThe parades are hilarious. Two years ago, I did not want to do the Fourth of July parade. I\u2019d been in isolation. (This was during the COVID-19 pandemic.) My dad was like, \u2018You have to just do the parade with the dog.\u201d<\/p>\n

And Dexter worked it, she said. \u201cHe\u2019s like, \u2018Hello, welcome to my town.\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n

Pasek said she doesn\u2019t think Dexter\u2019s story would have exploded as it did had we not been in the throes of the COVID-19 pandemic and isolated.<\/p>\n

\"Dexter,
Dexter, a dog from Ouray who can walk upright on his hind legs, will march in this year\u2019s Durango Cowboy Poetry Gathering parade. (Courtesy)<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/p>

\u201cI was bored out of my mind and did all of his social media because I had nothing else to do,\u201d she said, adding that she had been laid off from her job. \u201cDo you remember that feeling of like, What the heck is going to happen to us? Are we going to be in these houses forever? That\u2019s where you\u2019ve got to remember where humanity was at that point.<\/p>\n

\u201cAnd then you throw in this dog who was like, it doesn\u2019t matter that you think, dogs are supposed to be four-legged, and I\u2019m two. I\u2019m gonna walk upright. And I\u2019ll show you how to keep a good attitude, how to keep a smile on your face. Dexter was even more relatable in, well, if he can make it, I can make it \u2026 he just hit everything.\u201d<\/p>\n

katie@durangoherald.com<\/a><\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

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