Rooney

We adopted Rooney about 12 years ago, maybe 11. We love adopting rescue pups and we had one lab, named Surrey. Surrey was a black lab (did you know that black labs are the hardest to find homes for? They just don’t photograph well. Here she is – best one I can find).

So we had Surrey for a few months and she was perfect – sweet, obedient, loving. My wife thought it would be fun to adopt another lab, so we went back to “Adopt a Lab” and adopted this dirty yellow girl.

When we got her, she was filthy, smelly, disobedient and basically the opposite of Surrey. She was a terrible dog. I say that but you need to know that I have had dogs my entire life. I love them and they love me. This is first time I have ever gotten close to wondering “what have we done?” by adopting her. We went through a tough time with Rooney. She was named based her stubbornness – Wayne Rooney was one of our favorite footballers; a phenomenal talent with incredible energy and a bit of a blockhead. Rooney is a girl, but we didn’t care. She was just like Wayne, and in fact she was damn good with a soccer ball. She only played with soccer balls – wouldn’t chase a tennis ball as it was beneath her. Tennis balls were for Surrey.

Rooney took forever to come around. By ‘come around’ I mean start to listen to us even a little. She will always be stubborn, but she eventually relaxed, became lovable and as our vet says, “she is a kook.” Rooney is an incredible weirdo. She was very strong and athletic. She could jump/climb over our pool fence in order to go for a swim. She loves swimming more than anything. She swims in our pool, in the ocean, anywhere at all.  We have to be careful at our home in Maine because if we go out kayaking she will follow us. She once followed my daughter for about a mile before we got her to turn back. She’s amazing, really. She even taught the new kid how to swim (see below).

One time a couple years ago the vet took x-rays and found a bb pellet lodged in her chest. This was an indication of what her life must have been like before we got her. She was so high strung and difficult that we could only guess what she’d been through. The bb pellet gave us a clue.

This month we noticed that Rooney – now 12 years old – was starting to get a little thin. We took her to the vet and he took x-rays, finding a tumor in her chest. The tumor is next to her heart…her great big amazing heart. He said that she probably only has 1-2 months to live. I was in tears. I am in tears again as I write this and remember that moment. Doc said that when it looks like she’s in pain or struggling to breathe we can give her some pain meds, but making her comfortable at the end is our only strategy. Oh Rooney….

We are just 1 week in since that diagnosis. We have yet to see a decline – she is the same weirdo she has always been. Here she is, taking a nap.

I mentioned earlier how stubborn she is. She seems not to give a shit about what the doctor said and so far she is ignoring the fact that she has only a short time to live. I don’t know what will happen from here, but we are going to make sure that Rooney lives her best life for however long she has left. We are taking her back to Maine next week so she can play in the woods, run into the ocean and never look at a leash. I will take her for hikes and feed her as much as she wants, for as long as we can.

She was the worst dog ever. Now she is the best girl and I can’t imagine our home without her. 

Hanging in there with Rooney, for now!