Duke

Terry Pulaski, a former sergeant in the US Marines, has been homeless for ten years, he living in a mobile trailer largely parked in the back yard of his friend, Javier. Following his last tour of duty in Afghanistan, he, filled with battle shrapnel which required two surgeries to remove, was deemed medically unfit ever to return to active duty. Feeling like a burden to his schoolteacher wife Beth and his at the time twelve year old daughter Alice, and in emotional and physical pain which made him contemplate suicide, he instead decided to abandon the family and drop out of life. Financially, he has survived, sending money on occasion back to Alice, by a small repair service out of his trailer. Emotionally, he has survived with the companionship of his faithful border collie Duke, who stumbled into the Pulaskis' lives when he followed Beth home one day. Duke arguably has been Terry's only reason to live over these ten years. When Duke falls ill by what he assumes is through a stroke, Terry, without the money either for the tests required not only to figure out what ails Duke let alone his treatment, or to put him down which he could not watch anyway, Terry drops Duke off at a veterinary clinic run by Dr. Angela. Only leaving a note, Terry doesn't stay long enough to find out Duke's fate. However, dropping Duke off with compassionate Dr. Angela leads to a series of events which could lead to Terry's redemption and full return to the living.