Romeo
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“Romeo, Romeo, wherefore art thou?” 

Sweet Romeo

I can yell this at the top of my lungs, but because Romeo has become almost totally deaf in his old age, my time is better spent walking around the house looking for him.  When I find him, I gently tap him on the head in order to let him know that I’m looking for him without startling him.

Romeo, aka Pup Pup, is a lovable old soul.  He was a victim of the Northern California floods back in 1997.  We were watching the news on January 1, 1997, as the levees broke on the Sacramento River.  We watched as homes were inundated by raging waters up to their roofs, and people fled for their lives.

We watched with horror as one dog, Rodeo, was trapped on the roof of his owners’ home, while the flood water rose ever higher.  Click here to see the news video about Rodeo’s exciting rescue.  With all the devastation in the area, it was just the sort of heartwarming news that we all craved at the time.

 A call went out for volunteers to help with animals that were being taken to the Placer County fairgrounds for emergency care.  I was just one of hundreds volunteering to work with the 800 rescued animals.  Fifinella, still in high school then, would come after school and help out.  Romeo, a youngster of 12 weeks at the time, found himself in the puppy barn.

We cared for the animals for 3 weeks.  Four hundred of the animals were reunited with their owners, but the other four hundred needed new homes.  During the final week of the operation, we offered the 400 remaining animals up for adoption, with the stipulation that their owners still had a year to claim them.

Earlier during the rescue operation I had committed to taking Roofus, a dog who had spent three days trapped on the roof of a house before being rescued.  I had arranged to get him into one of the SPCA’s special-needs foster homes until I was done working the disaster and could dedicate myself to him.  He was as close to being feral as any dog I’ve known and I knew I was going to have my hands full when I finally got him home.

Once the press release went out that the remaining animals were available for adoption, the public responded in droves.  There were lines at the entrance, and people patiently waited for the opportunity to fill out the necessary paperwork before being escorted through the barns on the fairgrounds to see the animals who so desperately needed new homes.

Fifinella was working in the puppy barn, cleaning cages and walking the older pups.  She came to me one day and asked, “Mom, may I please take home a puppy?”

I groaned.  I had been feeling so good that we had made it this long without her falling in love with any of the animals, and I had told her when this whole thing started that she would not be allowed to bring home any of the dogs.

“Fifinella …” I started to say.

“But Mom, you’re taking home a dog,” she countered, not even giving me a chance to say no.

“Yes, but he’s a very special circumstance.  No one in their right mind would take him,” I said.  What was I saying?  Why was I throwing fuel on her fire?

“Yes, and this one is a special circumstance.  He only likes me,” she said, very matter-of-factly.

“Right,” I said, “How do you know that?”

“Because he won’t come up to the cage door for anyone but me!  For everyone else, he just sits in the back of the cage and ignores them.  Honest.  Please, Mom.  Please let me take him home.”

“No, and that’s final!” I said.  “Now go back to work!”

She went back to dog walking, but I had to start watching.  I headed for the puppy barn to see what I could see.  I watched as Fifinella worked and it was obvious which puppy she had fallen for.  He was a little brindle-colored mutt who was all legs and giddy with joy whenever he saw her.  He ran to the front of his enclosure, stood on his hind legs and greeted her with kisses as soon as she approached.  When she left, he retreated to the rear wall of the cage and sat down, dejected.  As other peopled walked by, he just looked at them.  They called to him, squatted down trying to entice him to come to them, but he would not engage with any of them.  Fifinella was the only person he was interested in.

“Dang!” I thought to myself.  “This is not working in my favor at all!”

Then I put the little brindle-colored pup to the test.  I approached his cage.

“Here, boy!” I called.  “Come! “

Darned if that little son of a gun didn’t go nuts with delight!  He leaped up and raced to the front of the cage like I was his long-lost best friend.  He stood up on his hind legs, tail whipping back and forth frantically, licking my face through the cage bars.

“Ok, ok, you’ve made your point!” I laughed at the little pup.  “Let me think about the rules for this engagement.”

The next time I crossed paths with Fifinella, I was ready for her.

“Hey,” I said, “I checked out your pup.  You’re right.  I think he’s picked us.  So this is the deal:  if you want him, you have to be prepared to take care of him 24/7 for 6 weeks, except when you are in class.  That means he goes where you go at all times.  That means he sleeps in your bedroom in a crate, so you can housebreak him.  If you want to spend the night at someone’s house, you have to find out if he is welcome.  If he’s not, you can’t go.  I’m going to have my hands full with the dog I adopted, I can’t be taking care of a puppy.  That’s the deal – take it or leave it.”

She thought about for a minute and said, “Let me go and chew on it – I’ll get back to you – thanks,” and went back to work.  Remember that she was almost 16, just about to get her driver’s license.  I figured this was going to be a great responsibility for her, and hopefully help keep her out of trouble (not that she was much of a trouble-maker).

She returned about an hour later and said, “Ok, I thought about it and I’m willing to do whatever it takes to adopt him.”  And that, my friends, is how Romeo came to be part of our family.

The sad part, for me, is that Romeo was housebroken in about a week.  I was hoping for weeks of misery for her, nights of howling.  But Romeo was like a wise old dog in a puppy body and couldn’t have been an easier dog to raise.  While I was going crazy acclimating the wild dog, Fifinella was having the time of her life with the dream puppy.

Romeo became a favorite with Fifinella’s high school class.  It was very difficult for her to leave him when it came time to go away to college.  She even took him to the photography studio for her high school senior portraits.

Fifinella and Romeo in 1999

Cherubs, both

From the time Romeo was a baby, he did this:

Romeo holds his hip

He has always held his hip in his mouth to go to sleep.  It’s the goofiest looking habit.  At first I worried about it, because I thought he was actually sucking on the hip and would end up with a hot spot.  But it turns out that he’s just holding it until he falls asleep.  He’s now almost 13 years old and he’s still holding that hip to fall asleep.

When I leave for any length of time, I give the dogs a chew treat that is supposed to be good for their teeth and help reduce plaque. 

Don't leave me!

While the other dogs immediately start wolfing theirs down, Romeo always follows me around just holding his in his mouth.

Hmmm ... wonder what I'll do with this ...

I always wonder if he actually eats his, buries it, or just drops it for one of the others to enjoy.

You'll never know!

I think he likes keeping it a secret!