Nugget Loves You

Both websites were taken down by Heroku and are no longer available.

Growing up, I had a fear of dogs. Don’t ask me where it came from, I just didn’t like dogs running up to me. This continued until during my first research semester of college, where I met Keith and Nugget near the Wilson Gym. For some reason, Nugget was just… friendly. She didn’t bark like I’d feared at the time, she just smiled. And over time, I became less fearful of petting her. She became one of my favorite parts of the day. And to this day, she’s one of the best parts of my college experience. As I was learning web development during the initial months of the COVID Pandemic, I eventually created the first version of the website Nugget Loves You, which would load a new image of Nugget on a golden frame. I also utilized MongoDB to host images and created the simple functionality for users to upload their own photos of Nugget and motivational quotes for others to see. The web development was clunky and built really only for laptop users, but I was still proud of the effort.

I then got busy with the remainder of school, but I was greeted always by Keith and Nugget through all my senior year. Unfortunately, Nugget passed away a few days after graduation, and that prompted me to work on an updated version of the website, completed in two weeks in May, where cards would fly in from the bottom of the screen (coded mainly in React) with images of Nugget. While these websites ended up getting taken down due to Heroku discontinuing its free plan, these websites were my first small endeavor into web programming and my tribute to an amazing dog. Nugget, we love you.

You can read several tributes to Nugget on the Duke Chronicle here.

You may read my tribute to Nugget here.

If you would like to buy a T-Shirt in memory of Nugget, you may do so here.