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ou may hear Pete before you see him. If you’re walking in the vicinity of Hodges and South Water or South Water near M&M’s, Pete will let out a throaty chorus. It’s ferocious only in its intensity to get you to look for where it’s coming from. And if those “rrrrrGrrrrrrRrrrrRrrrrs” could be dubbed in English it’d be the voice of Joe Pesci saying, “Hey over here. Look at me. Over here. No, no, over here. Here, for God sakes!”

Pete surveying his domain.

For his sheer persistence and oddly alluring voice, Pete is the Pet of the Month for June.

Does Pete really sound like Joe Pesci? Here is Pesci movie dialogue, cleaned up with Pete’s assistance for the TownDock PG rating:

Pete, a Jack Russell, moved to town in November of 2005 with Elizabeth and Roger Cordes. He has the run of the yard behind their Hodges Street home and next to Elizabeth’s dental office.

Pete looks longingly toward the M&M’s kitchen door, visible and smellable from his backyard .

No, he does not floss.

But he has been known to become floss-like, squeezing under the fence in the yard — until Roger strengthened it. The first place Elizabeth looks for him is the Tiki Bar, where he makes his occasional appearance there as the bon vivant that he is. Another haunt is M&M’s kitchen door. And it’s not just a sirloin that Pete is after.

Pete is an omnivore. Sure, his nose tweaks to the smell of burgers cooking. But his hunger shows no limits. Pete will actually eat lettuce. Even broccoli.

Pete is 13 and the Cordes have had him since he was just a few weeks old. Roger says he and their then 13-year old son had left their home in Raleigh to go to the library to research a school project. On Jones Ferry Road, they saw this little white dog wandering along as “cars were zipping by.” Worried about the dog’s ability to survive, Roger and his son pulled over. His son opened his door and without much beckoning, “the dog jumped in.”

Pete is not impressed that you can stand on two legs

They rushed back home, dropped the dog off – well, actually, Roger says, they “threw the dog to Elizabeth” – and returned to the library. Elizabeth and Pete bonded quickly.

The family put ads in the paper and tacked up posters asking if someone had lost a dog. Nobody responded. “I felt bad,” Roger says, “for whoever’s dog this was.”

But that wouldn’t be the last time the Cordes had to put out an APB about Pete. There was, Roger says, the time when he staged “a major disappearance.”

Pete has always been an escape artist. From early on, Roger says, the dog would finagle “his way between the posts of the fence.” Roger says. “And he’d be gone.”

Pete’s Shoney’s Adventure

One day he didn’t return. It took a month and a half to get him back, during which time their younger son Evan, then 9 or 10, wrote an ‘epic poem’ about it all. In piecing the story together later, it seems that Pete had sauntered out of their yard, crossed Raleigh’s busy I-40 Beltline and made his way to a Shoney’s on Buck Jones Road. There he ran all around the Shoney’s kitchen. A woman eating at the restaurant took him home for six weeks before realizing it was a dog that was listed as missing.

Pete uses the old circus dog pose to beg for treats when guests come to visit. It works.

Things calmed down for a while, but then on moving to Oriental and the house on Hodges Street, Pete found himself within smelling range of several restaurants. M&M’s kitchen is just one lot away from Pete’s fenced-in yard and the allure has proven too great.

In Oriental, the Cordes would get calls from M&Ms that Pete was “at the kitchen door again.” Pete had his owners mystified as to how he was escaping from inside the house. It wasn’t that he was Houdini, but he was smart enough to hear when they hadn’t clicked the screen door tightly. They do now. And with a new fence in place, Pete’s promenades have been severely curtailed.

But if you do see him, chances are he just wants to say hey.

Congratulations Pete – Mr June 2008

Pete gives his best “you talkin’ ta me?” look on the back porch

Pete’s Bio

Celebrity Pet Most Resembles: Joe Pesci

What he likes best about Oriental: Smells near M&M’s dumpster

What he dislikes most about Oriental: The height of M&M’s dumpster

Favorite Book: “Watchers”, by Dean Koontz (Pete likes the dog named “Einstein”)
Favorite Foods: Whatever you drop
Favorite wine: Chianti
Hang-outs: Tiki Bar, Pet Parlour
Hobbies: Sneaking out

Know a pet that is a standout? Send in some details and a photo to info@towndock.net. Tell why that pet deserves the coveted TownDock.net Pet of the Month Prize Package --- accolades, a pat on the head (snakes excluded) and a box of Milk Bones ( or snack suitable for the species). We regret that we cannot offer a college scholarship to Pet Of The Month winners. Animals caught near the HarborCam attempting to suck up to the judges will be disqualified.