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21 Charles Street | Wakefield • 43 Hillside Road( Garden City Ctr.) | Cranston 401-783-4433 | info @ sweenorschocolates. com may seem trivial, but I felt needed. I was happy, busy and there were never two sets of eyes with wagging tails far away. I felt unbridled devotion.
Then that damn rescue Facebook page struck again. I opened a post about a pair of retrievers who were surrendered. Their owner had entered hospice care. One was a smaller brown dog, about three years old, who was adopted immediately. Then there was Cole. An eight-year-old black Labrador retriever, Cole was large but underweight, with a flaky coat due to malnutrition. He hated the kennel, was depressed, and infrequently inquired about. He had the saddest eyes.
Who in the world was going to adopt this large geriatric dog? Dog Man to the rescue. The kennel staff sold him hard.“ He’ s big,” I said.“ What does he weigh?”“ Oh, maybe fifty pounds,” they said. At his first vet visit I learned he weighed eighty-five pounds. I had just adopted a pony.
As was the case with beagles, I had never owned a Labrador retriever. I named him after one of my favs, Nat King Cole, because he was tall, dark and mellow( or so I thought). Cole quickly accelerated my learning curve.
My dog duo had met Cole before adoption; it was a requirement. But when I came home with this behemoth one Saturday morning last summer, they scampered anywhere and everywhere to get out of his way. Rather than force the introduction, I let them be while I worked in the yard.
While unsupervised, Cole devoured a loaf of bread and a pound cake I had purchased for the office, as anything on the counter was easy picking for him. He learned rather quickly where the treats were stored— in a cabinet not reachable by the other two— and more than once I came home to a Milk-Bone explosion, with empty bags and wrappers everywhere. His current record, before I found a more secure spot, was four bags in one day.
After a few days of chaos, it hit me. I have three dogs. Oh my God, what have I done?
I became paranoid— was I going to
30 RHODE ISLAND MONTHLY I OCTOBER 2025