Roodle, a gentle dog. 199?-2004
The start of this collie's life was not pleasant. We don't know what went on before he was discovered in a back yard, fully grown, gaunt, starved to two-thirds his healthy body weight, nearly naked from skin diseases.
In the world of pet rescue the animals are categorizable as strays, unwanted animals (technically called "owner release"), and a third category delicately referred to as "involuntary owner release". He was in the third.
The woman from Sheltie Rescue did the legal formalities and picked him up; she brought him to Austin Collie Rescue where about three months of tender care revived him to a state where he looked presentable; after that we were the lucky ones who adopted him.
His response to his brutal start in life?
He was the most gentle dog I've ever met. Slow, warm, goofy, utterly relaxed.
He was the most eager, in his slow-moving soft way, to make new friends.
His favorite pastime was to be taken on a walk past the school at busy times, where crowds of kids would run to surround him, screaming "Lassie! Lassie!"; and he would wear a huge grin at the outpouring of friendship, and lean gently against the kids.
He came to be called Roodle because, on a walk, if he spotted a child fifty yards away, he'd start whine-howling: "oo Rooo oo RoodleRoodle Roo" meaning "I see a child! Take me to it now!"
Given a real home, and steady food, he grew radiant in beauty, a classic Collie with a luxuriant coat. He could have stood beside the glamour Collies of the movies and they'd have looked dim and pale by comparison. His rescuers would see him on a social occasion and marvel : "you can't mean it! Is that the same dog?"
Nobody knows how old he was.
His strength started fading -- with strange rapidity -- last summer. The weight fell off him; his limbs weakened; he became confused, and sometimes couldn't get up. Nothing turned up in medical tests. At last we judged -- hoping we were right, but with the awful uncertainty of such occasions -- that it was time to help him to his end. He drifted off quietly, held and petted by owner and rescuer.
And so, now he is gone.
