I adopted my Rudy on November 19, 2004. I had just moved to Maine after being in Germany for 30 years. I had no intention of adopting another dog. Losing my last friend was too difficult to bear. I had been purchasing the Boston Globe everyday. On this one particular day, they were sold out, so I bought the Portland Herald. I read the paper cover to cover. I say an ad that caught my eye. It said, “Rudy, senior lab/retriever needs a home ASAP.” I knew what that meant. (Rudy was my landlord’s name in Germany. A German physician, Yvonne, who volunteered at the shelter named him Rudy. She just happened to put the ad in the Portland paper.) I called the Humane Society in Waterville. Rudy was still there. I went there and got him. I heard him barking from outside. It was dark so we spent the night at a motel. The next day I took him into Happy Paws in Topsham for a much needed bath. He wasn’t handsome, but very skinny, smelly and ill mannered. I told myself that I would care for him, but not become attached to him. In a short while he won my heart. We became inseparable. He loved to play ball. He was really good at throwing it back. When the weather was bad, he would throw it into a basket that was a distance away on the floor. Even more than that he loved swimming and retrieving. He would drop his bone in front of someone to throw in the water. If there was more than one person, he would take turns dropping it, in order, so everyone had a turn. Ultimately, he would find the person who threw it the farthest, even when that person went back to lay down. One time I told the people on the beach that we were leaving and they didn’t throw it again. I got Rudy and his bone up to the street. He ran back down and found fishermen on the opposite side of the beach and dropped it by them. They really threw it far.

I didn’t let him off the leash for 2 years. Since he was found on the streets and in the shelter for such a long time, I figured he ran away. He never did. He walked by my side. He was always beautiful on the inside and, in time, his beauty shone outwardly too. He became so handsome.

My Rudy went to heaven on March 24, 2009. We were together and my heart is breaking. I am so fortunate to have had him in my life for 4 years and 4 months.