COEUR d’ALENE — Rowdy's tail was wagging even before he reached Susie Brott's classroom door Wednesday morning.

The old therapy golden retriever shuffled in with his owner, Jean Robinson, whose cheeks were tinged pink as she held back tears.

Rowdy picked up his head as he made his rounds through the Fernan STEM Academy classroom, stopping to receive kisses and long hugs from Brott's special education life skills students.

He seemed to know this was the last time he'd see them, that this was goodbye.

"Rowdy was smiling with those kids today," Robinson said. "I think it's something that Rowdy needed to do, and I think we all needed it, too. It's been a long time, and it's been a wonderful ride."

Jean and her husband, Ed, made the difficult decision to send Rowdy “across the Rainbow Bridge" Wednesday afternoon. His rapidly declining health combined with an inability to eat and an aggressive tumor made the decision bitter but necessary. They arranged to have their veterinarian come to their truck so he could be in their arms and in a familiar place when he passed.

"Rowdy was born breech and not breathing. I literally breathed Rowdy’s first breath into him," Jean said. "This is 44 years of the same line of golden retrievers, from my very first golden retriever we got in 1971. I’m just heartbroken. Ed’s heartbroken.”

The gentle canine has been an honored guest in Brott's class since he was in-utero. His mom, the Robinsons' therapy golden retriever Scooter, preceded Rowdy in the canine therapy work until her passing in March 2011. Rowdy picked up the baton and carried on the work at Fernan.

"When he comes in he’s like a celebrity," Brott said. "The kids stop in the hallway. It’s pretty cute."

Rowdy would help shy students break out of their shells, calm them and even rile them and lift their mood when he was feeling rambunctious.

“He comes by his name honestly. He was a feisty little thing,” Brott said. "It’s really been interesting to see the kiddos here. We’ve had kids who did not want to go near the dog and are now petting him. We play a game with him where they hide a treat or a plush toy and he’s supposed to find it, but it’s classic because the kids bring him right to it so there’s no guessing involved."

Brott and the Robinsons have worked together through the canine therapy sessions for 17 years. Rowdy would visit at least once a month, a routine the kids and Brott will sorely miss.

"It’s kind of the end of a dynasty," Brott said. "There’s not another one coming, and I just think of all the lives the dogs have touched."

Jean said Rowdy's final visit to Fernan, while heart-wrenching, provided much-needed closure, for them and for him.

"I wouldn’t have been able to come back over here without doing it, I don’t think, and I have to come over here and teach a couple times," said Jean, a retired Coeur d'Alene Charter teacher. "I thought, ‘I don’t know, it’s going to be hard walking in this door without a dog.'"

The Robinsons might adopt a rescue golden retriever in the near future. They plan to keep Rowdy's ashes to honor his memory and the good work he did in his lifetime as a beloved therapy companion.

"It’s hard to say goodbye," Ed said. "I don’t want him to go, but I don’t want him to suffer, either."

"It's been a great ride," Jean said. "The progress we made with those kids is something to live with forever, and the kids will remember, too."