Moose: A perfect name for this ninety plus pound chocolate Lab who loved all life could offer. He joined us as a six-year-old stray with a bum knee and a suspicious lump in his armpit. That lump turned out to be bone cancer in one of his ribs. Even though he was feeling as fit as a fiddle, he was given at most eight months to live. His hospice mom remarked, “I’m doing everything I can to make him as happy as a dog can be. He is an amazing dog.”
And so, defying all odds and with expert medical care, Moose enjoyed the next four years living the good life: Swimming in the pond every day weather permitted, attending “Dog Nights” at a university where community dogs visited dorms so students could have a “dog” fix, and being in the city’s annual St. Paddy’s Day parade. He had a young lady with cancer who was his special pen pal, and he acted as ambassador to families bringing dogs to the hospital for cancer care. His heart was truly as big as he was.