The Story of Dooley [aka: Ireland, Rescue Dogs, and a Name] (SoLSC 18/31) #sol15

Yesterday being St. Patrick’s Day, it had me reminiscing about our trip to Ireland nine years ago with my family and grandparents. One of the most lasting things from that trip, beyond the memories made and photographs taken, is something that wouldn’t normally be taken away from a trip. It’s my dog, but maybe not in the way you would think. Let me explain…

This is Dooley.

She loves being Up North at the lake in the summer - even if she does get some owies on her nose

She is a yellow lab/golden retriever mix.

Relaxing at home

Halfway through my Master’s program, after my second year of teaching, I had a rough end to the school year. I was feeling like I needed something and woke up early one Saturday morning before the last week of school and read an article about rescue dogs. By the time my husband woke up a few hours later, I was presenting my argument for why I felt it was time to get a dog (I’d had them all the time growing up).

How could you resist this face?

I had already started searching and had found some possibilities in the area. Then Jeff came over to show me one he had found, and as soon as I saw her face on the Petfinder website, I knew we had to apply to adopt her and go visit her at the foster home to meet her. She was a puppy that came out of the Hurricane Katrina rescues, when they put all the dogs together as they tried to save them, months later there were baby puppies, and she was one of them. There was not enough space for them, so a rescue, HOPE Safehouse, in Racine, Wisconsin took a bunch of puppies in to save them.

As you can see, she is now very comfortable in our house!

When we walked in, at 12 weeks old, she came running right up to us at the door. I plopped right down in the foyer of this stranger’s house and this adorable little puppy climbed onto my lap. Then my husband sat down and she started chewing on his hand/wedding ring. I knew right then we’d be adopting her.

The day we brought her home - she was SO small!

So of course, as we were driving home, we started talking about names. You may be wondering how this ties back to Ireland as I started off this post with. Well, the thing is, naming a dog can be hard. And one thing we kept coming back to was that Ireland trip and the car rental we had – it was from a local company because it saved some money, and we had always laughed about the name. We went through the Dan Dooley Car Rentals company…and one of the things we kept seeing were gorgeous, stocky Labrador Retrievers throughout our trip, the European breed that were the kind we liked the best. So when we thought back to that trip a year before, and laughed again about the name, we realized that we had found our name for our dog before we even knew we'd have one so soon...and a funny story to go along with how we came up with it.

Never far away, even when I'm reading, she just wants attention and love

This is Dooley. 

Love this face!

She is now eight-years-old, and the sweetest, most mellow dog you could meet. 

Who got her name in an interesting way.