Farmington Valley Golden Retrievers

New England certainly got an early taste of winter’s bounty with the cold, ice, and snow this weekend. Not one but two scoops of stormy weather separated by a day’s grace. Our goldens became like puppies again with the snowfall in the backyard.. wrestling, piling on and generally acting like kids on a school cancellation day.

The day’s walks become extra challenging for me. Besides the cold, wind, and ice underfoot, there is the added hazard of not having enough traction to hold them all back when they want to run. I often wonder in these circumstances about trying a dog sled. Besides needing special harnesses and the sled, I have no idea if their builds would allow them to do this safely. So it will just remain a fond dream while I try to keep my shoulders from complaining too loud the day after we have our outdoor adventures.

The red items slung across my chest are extra leashes. It is amazing how often they break after a few months of heavy work on our runs. The metal joints wear out from fatigue. And with everyone in our area seemingly taking their dogs to the high school fields, a broken leash means a possible dog fight and an unhappy Farmington dog owner. There is certainly a whole different awareness you have to have when walking a pack of animals, even those as good natured as golden retrievers.

Our son Michael Jr. and his family flew into New York from Florence, Italy on Friday. We had been keeping their special puppy, Rocky, while they searched for a possible place to live with his upcoming transfer there. Our other son Brian celebrated his 30th birthday on Friday in NYC. To make the weekend even more special, our oldest daughter Lauren flew into NY from San Francisco,  and our daughter Kristen came from Boston with her boyfriend Bobby. We had not had our whole family together for a year so this was a very special afternoon on Saturday. So we packed up Rocky and brought him to the big city. One of our good neighbors, Theresa, was kind enough to donate her apartment for the day for our family to gather together.

Our two grandsons were overjoyed to see their puppy again. Rocky is amazingly tolerant of their young energy and exuberance.

It was very cold walking around the city, but Rocky and I got to experience first hand our first New York City dog park.

Rocky was certainly a people magnet on the streets, bringing good cheer to all the shoppers who stopped to ask how old he was and give him a pat.

Too soon the afternoon ended, and we had to say goodbye to Mike and Emma and their boys and Rocky too. They were leaving for Maryland the next day, and the rest of us had to head back to Connecticut before the second storm arrived.

So it was a very special holiday weekend for our family. We give thanks to our Lord for allowing everyone to travel and arrive safely.

Barb and I had a most enjoyable two weeks babysitting Rocky, who added even more energy to our dog heavy home. We have never owned a male golden before, so I don’t know if it was his “maleness” or his inner personality that just came through. He definitely has a presence about himself that caused him to stand out even though he was at the bottom of the pack hierarchy. We look forward to getting him back temporarily again when our son moves to Italy next year. So stay tuned for more Rocky adventures in 2009.

Barb and I, and Lily, Emma, Solo, Riley, and Lucy wish all of our friends, family, clients, and golden readers a safe, healthy, and merry upcoming holiday week.

Next week the final blog of 2008 and some golden resolutions..

Our oldest son, Michael Jr., lives in Maryland with Emma and their two sons, Ethan and Alex. He recently learned he was being promoted and also being transferred to Italy for a few years. As grandparents, you feel more than a little tug on your heartstrings when your children and grandchildren move farther away rather than closer. Mike Jr. called us Sunday night and told us about their preparations to visit Florence for two weeks to find a place to live. Rocky didn’t have a place to stay yet, as he had not had his bordetella shot which is required for a kennel visit. (For those of our readers who are new to our dog family, Rocky is a very special boy who had emergency bowel surgery the one day before he was to join his new family. We ended up keeping him an extra month to recover, and then he joined our son’s family.) I happened to have Monday off, so Barb and Mike Jr. came up with  a wild plan to fly down there early the next morning and then drive Rocky home to us.

So we got up at 4:00 AM, got our Goldens here situated, and then headed to the airport.

A quick flight on Southwest, a rental car pickup, and then we were there. I hadn’t seen our grandsons in months so this was really special for me. Barb had been able to take some solo trips but I always had conflicts. We brought Christmas presents for everyone as we wouldn’t be seeing them on the holiday. What started as a whim, turned out to be a very enjoyable day for everyone.

The biggest hit for the little ones were the snow globes that security at the airport payed extra special attention to..

Rocky was thriving and looking great.

All too soon though, it was time to say goodbye and head back for the long ride home.

Rocky did great in the car once his lunch came up on the back seat. It was my fault that we fed him an hour before we left. The ride home took about six hours with Barb and I switching driving every so often. Getting home that evening, our son Brian introduced Rocky to the pack.

A very full day, but one of very happy memories on multiple levels. And it all occurred because of a crazy idea that we should be exceptional granddogparents, and take care of our special boy once again!

PS: Since Mike JR. will be in Italy another week, I want to reassure him when he checks his email that Rocky is doing ok with the bigger girls. So here is a photo of him scoping out his former whelping box home. This area is once again turned into my little brewery where holiday wine and beer is fermenting. I wonder what thoughts and smells he has of that special place.

And finally, here is Rocky with his place among the pack. At the back of course since he is at the bottom of the pecking order.

PS: We are still waiting on our Riley’s next heat. These events are very unpredictable. We thought November or December would be the window of opportunity. Still we are only half way through December. Riley herself doesn’t appear too worried.. She lives very fully in the moment.

Thanksgiving Day I spent 24 hours on call at the hospital. I was certainly not alone, but shared the day with a lot of other hard working professionals. Health issues never recognize a holiday. One of those people was Dr. Gwen, one of my favorite anesthesiologists. She has done Thanksgiving on call for years so her partners can share their holiday with their family members. More amazingly, I discovered that also for years she has brought the OR staff a Thanksgiving dinner complete with turkey and all the fixings. Our paths that day crossed a number of times between the delivery room and operating rooms. Mothers that needed epidurals, and/or Cesarean sections, and gyn patients that required emergency surgery. And I was just one kind of specialist that needed her and her team’s skills. There were traumas, codes, and orthopedic and general surgery cases that she had to supervise.

It was about 4 AM the next morning when we were both tired after finishing another emergency delivery. We had a few moments to ourselves so I asked her what she was going to do when her shift ended. She said she had another family tradition that occurred the day after her Thanksgiving call. She would take her family to New York for the weekend and enjoy time together at a show and restaurant. Thankfully, she had learned through the years that she needed to hire a driver to take everyone safely there, and could get at least a couple of hours of sleep before her weekend started.

Now why is she the topic of this golden blog?  Well, she has one of our puppies from Emma’s last litter.   I was curious where the little guy, Cooper,  would be staying for the weekend.. Turns out he was to sleep over at Gayle’s house, a fabulous place with acres of land and a large pond. Even better was the company that Gayle’s two golden’s Emmy and Swimmer would be for him. So after the weekend was over, Gayle was nice enough to share with us the happenings at her home.

Gayle has invisible fence around her pond, and turns it on when the weather turns wintry. That seems like a great idea since the pond is right outside her back door. Notice the pond outside the window in this picture of Cooper pulling on Emmy’s ear.

Here is the last picture, Cooper tuckered out but very content napping with his plush toy.

Seems that Cooper enjoyed his weekend just as much as Dr. Gwen’s well deserved time off.

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Sometimes people come into your lives and make an enormous impact. In my life, two wonderful women from Vermont did just that.  Kathy & Carolyn contacted me seven years ago about potentially breeding their female Golden Retriever, Skeeter, to our Travis.

Kathy & Carolyn train their dogs in obedience, agility, tracking and just about anything else they can find the time to do.  After carefully researching pedigrees and investigating various stud dogs, they asked about Travis, who was a champion with an obedience title and two hunting titles, as a possible choice to sire Skeeter’s litter.

As luck would have it Peter and I had planned a visit with friends in Vermont a couple of weeks later so we invited Kathy & Carolyn to meet Travis while we were there.  To know Travis was to love him immediately.  His magnetic personality made him a favorite of all he met, human or dog, and Kathy & Carolyn were no exception.  Meeting Travis sealed the deal and a rendevous was planned.

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A short time later Skeeter was bred to Travis and gave birth to a litter of 9 puppies.  Everyone was beyond thrilled. Skeeter brought great working ability to the pedigree as she was multi-titled herself.  These pups would have great potential!  When the litter was about 3 weeks old, Travis who was 8 at the time, had a grand mal seizure.  It was an extremely hot/humid August day and his temperature was dangerously high.  We immediately cooled him down in the tub and called our vet, took him for bloodwork and observation and put him on a mild dose of phenobarbital.  All tests were negative but a few days later he seizured again.  This was followed by a nosebleed…not a good sign at all.  One week post the first seizure, Travis died on his bed in our kitchen.  The diagnosis was likely a rapidly growing brain tumor.  No words could adequately describe our grief.  I knew I must contact Kathy & Carolyn to te ll them the awful news.  I simply could not speak, and so I wrote the hardest e-mail I have ever written telling them the dog they had so carefully chosen as a suitable mate for Skeeter’s litter was now gone at a very young age and likely from brain cancer.  I felt terrible about it on so many levels.

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A few days later I received a letter in the mail from Kathy & Carolyn.  Having been in the “dog business” for as long as I had, I knew this could go very badly.  But people can surprise you, and along with their sincere condolences, they offered me of one of Skeeter and Travis’ pups.  I wondered how this could be, how they could be so generous, so understanding.  I thought about their offer for a few days and made the call.  The answer was YES, I wanted one and I wanted a boy.

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When the pups were 7 weeks old my good friend Jeannine Vieten and I made the trip to Kathy & Carolyn’s beautiful farm and training center in Tinmouth, VT.  The pups were darling and there were two boys in particular that caught my eye.  In the end I decided on a puppy we named ‘T” which was Travis’ nickname.

Needless to say it was a very emotional day for all of us.  I went to Vermont fully intending to pay for T because after all, Kathy & Carolyn had paid a stud fee in full for the breeding to Travis.  It was only right that I buy the puppy.  They refused to take payment for him and T has become the greatest gift anyone has ever given to us.  He is now Ch. North Star Pebwin Crossroads JH WC and has made Skeeter, Travis, Kathy, Carolyn, Peter and me extremely proud.

But more importantly, before he became the accomplished adult he is today, he filled our hearts with joy and eased the pain of Travis’ loss.

Thank you Kathy & Carolyn for being there when we needed it most and for helping us to remember that goodness, human kindness and compassion exists. We will be forever grateful for your friendship and for your gift of T.

It seems very appropriate with it being Thanksgiving week, to look back on our most recent litter and share some of the heartwarming moments that ended our last adventure. At that time Barb was with puppy Rocky at Tufts Vet Hospital, and I was out of state for a long planned neighborhood guy’s weekend away. So our son Brian and a number of our great neighbors stepped in and helped give away the puppies to their new families.

They all did a fantastic job of it, and even managed to capture the happy faces as they took their new family members home.

Barb and I then saw the last few pups leave the following day.

The really neat thing about our last two families was that Lisa and Suzy were college roommates. They have kept close while raising their families, and they each have had two of our dogs now. While Barb and I knew that the house was going to be very quiet when the last two pups left, we had a lot of fun with everyone at the end. Even mother Emma was able to share in some last minute play with her offspring.

We still had those pangs of emptiness, but since we still had Rocky to nurse back to health, it wasn’t as bad as usual..

And finally, I did promise a few folks who came to visit, their moment in the glare of the internet lights, so here is everyone (I think), who came at the end of our last litter days for their puppy hugs and photos.

In closing, Barb and I wish much Thanksgiving happiness to all our readers, friends, and puppy owners. With the number of very happy smiles in this blog alone, you can see why we feel blessed for the opportunity to do what we do for our favorite animals and their owners. Like mission work, you really do gain much in return when giving of your time and energy to others.