“He was Sweeney,” says Bob Petrovich when asked about how he and his wife Lori knew that the malnourished but “calm and laid-back” dog was the right match for them. The answer is the same when Bob describes how, a few years later, Sweeney sat patiently as a little girl launched herself at his neck and clung too tightly for a little too long.
Although the Petroviches believe their beloved dog’s name may be a shortened form of “Sweeney Todd” — since it was around Halloween in 2014 that they adopted him from Saving Grace Animals NC — the Gaelic translation of Sweeney is “well-disposed” or “pleasant.”
This was no coincidence, Bob and Lori knew. Though, over the next decade, Sweeney would prove himself to be a complex character.
Bob Petrovich and Sweeney take a morning walk in January 2018.
He’d been found in the woods and was fortunate that Bob and Lori lived close to Fred G. Bond Metro Park. So close that Sweeney would enjoy at least two daily outings in the park, mostly with Bob in the mornings and Lori later in the day.
Recalling his first visit, soon after he was rescued, prompts laughter from Bob and Lori. “We almost lost a dog in 24 hours,” Lori says about how Sweeney quickly backed out of his collar with attached leash and, as Bob describes, “dashed into the park.” What followed was a confusing (for Sweeney) and frustrating (for Bob) exercise in reining him in. Not long after, they introduced a harness.
But Sweeney’s love of the wilderness was never really bridled, as this “water dog” spent a lot of time in the park’s lake. So much so that Bob recollects, “We couldn’t get him out.” And that’s how many Bond Park regulars will remember Sweeney, whom Bob described as “the natural attraction.”
“The dog was a bounding gallop of energy and joy,” says Cary Magazine Chief Photographer Jonathan Fredin, who occasionally photographed Sweeney during his morning walks for nearly a decade. The first time he shot Sweeney was in September of 2015 as he hurtled toward Bond Lake chasing a ball Bob had thrown.
The spontaneous photo shoot Bob recalls best involves one of the birds that Sweeney used to run after and bark at. Once he got the Canada geese squawking, Bob says Sweeney would “be all happy with himself.” So, when one morning Bob noticed Fredin waiting to capture a great blue heron in flight, he looked down to Sweeney and over at Fredin and asked, “You want to see it fly?”
Park regulars may have known Sweeney, described by Fredin as a “fixture,” but it wasn’t just humans who enjoyed him. “I often watched Sweeney greeting people and other dogs,” he says. Those dogs — including Molly, Scramble, and Cary Magazine Social Media Coordinator Arlem Mora’s Rhodesian ridgeback, Rocco — would romp around on weekends as a playgroup of 10–12.
Sweeney similarly enjoyed his alone time. After coming home and getting dried off by Lori, he’d find a good place — like the stair landing because it gave him the best viewpoint — to relax. He’d also wander around and do, as Bob describes, “his own thing,” until he decided he wanted to be petted.
Sweeney was friendly to other animals, including this Boston terrier. On weekends he would often play with groups of dogs.
Along with his favorite indoor spots that were cool in the summer and cozy in the winter, Sweeney enjoyed Lori’s gardening time. As she explains, “He understood that he should stay inside the yard … and 99% of the time, he was good at that.”
Yet he was Sweeney, and an incident that springs to Lori’s mind is when one evening, with twilight approaching, he was reclined on the grass beside her. That is until she turned her head … and he was gone — presumably in the direction of the pond, home to the beaver that Sweeney could smell and whose lodge he enjoyed jumping on when he wanted a game of “tag.”
By the time Lori and Bob found the flashlight and then Sweeney, he was in the water and facing an angry tail-slapping beaver. Sweeney never caught that beaver, but if he had, what would he have done with it? “Nothing,” Bob admits.
By April 2024, Sweeney was no longer able to complete his park walks and needed to be driven home. Three months later, he passed away peacefully surrounded by love.
When, by 2024, Sweeney’s walks had to be shortened, Lori and Bob were happy to oblige. Whether Lori would drive out to bring Sweeney and Bob home, or she and Sweeney would stop to take “picnics” every quarter mile or so using the treats she carried in her pocket, there was little doubt that Sweeney was slowing down.
Apart from a toe that was amputated when he was relatively young, Sweeney was always healthy. Even when he developed arthritis in his spine, Bob and Lori treated it with prescribed medication and trips to places like the Char-Grill and Pet Mania on Cary Parkway (because Sweeney knew where the treats were) or Brookdale Senior Living Center to sniff out the breadcrumbs left for the deer. As Lori says, “He remembered every place there was food,” even if he could no longer chase rabbits and squirrels.
The last time Fredin saw Sweeney, he was sitting and resting along the trail. “I expected to see him every time I walked the park,” he says. “If he didn’t show up in the morning, I’d wonder why.” When the summer months passed and Sweeney didn’t return, Fredin feared the worst.
And, indeed, the worst had come to pass. By June, Sweeney’s systems had started to shut down. On July 2 at 1:30 in the afternoon, in the backyard where he had spent so much time beside Lori, Sweeney went to sleep.
“He never had a sad day,” Lori remarks on the lessons Sweeney imparted on her and Bob — and others like Fredin and Mora, who says that “dogs are such a reflection of their owners, and I truly believe Sweeney was such a wonderful pup because Bob is such a kind-hearted person.”
While the grief over losing “gentle soul” Sweeney is heavy, Bob chimes in that Sweeney “didn’t understand crying” and Lori reiterates that he “lived in the moment.”
Yet, those moments were too few for the Petroviches, who have done some dog sitting since Sweeney passed and plan to adopt again in the summer. This time around, and after the experience of loving and being loved by a dog like Sweeney, Lori wants to welcome a puppy. Her reason? “I don’t think 10 years with Sweeney was enough.”
After all, he was Sweeney.
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