Farmington Valley Golden Retrievers

The last of our puppy children departed today. The whelping box is quiet. If you listen hard enough, you can still imagine the boisterous sounds of the happy litter inside just two days ago. Every story must have an end though, and this book, Emma’s Magical Adventure, has reached its final page. Looking back over the photos from the last eight weeks, it is amazing to me how many different adventures we have had and shared.

Barbara, Emma, and I wish our readers: friends, family, old and new puppy owners, much happiness. Like the traditional Irish blessing that graces many a placque, our golden puppy blessing to you all would go something like this…

May the warm memories of these puppy adventures wrap tightly around your heart and mind. May they shelter you against the frigid chills of life’s difficult moments.

May the love, laughter, and adventures we have shared together, remind us all how the simple lessons are the most important, and that living in the moment is a philosophy that we all would do well to embrace.

Then we might enjoy life as fully as our Goldens do.

But wait… Like the sparks and embers of an autumn bonfire, Emma’s efforts have taken new life to alight and flame into adventures in many new lives. Her birthing efforts now will ripple and grow into individual book sequels that will unfold over the next several years. Here are truly the fruits and blessings of her labors…

Puppy hugs to all.

Happy New Year to all our family and friends and clients! I was on call last night in the DR, but did not ring in the first New Year’s baby. In my mind though, there is no better way to start the new year by coming home and spending the day watching our new puppy family. I thought I would showcase our Riley today. She is two years young and in heat. She will be having her hips and elbows XRayed in February to be sure there are no signs of dysplasia. Then eye and heart checks to follow in the Spring. If all is well, then she will be bred with her next heat in early summer. Barb and I share her breeding rights with our mentor Sydney Waller, and Donna Talbot another breeding friend.

In the next eight weeks you will see a lot of pictures of Emma’s pups going forward with their growth and development. So I thought it might be fun to look backward on our Riley’s growth from adult back to puppy. The one shortcoming with this blog is the inability to really show the energy and excitement one of these animals brings to your family life. But I will try and use some photos that hopefully capture Riley’s energetic personality. Riley was around for Emma’s first litter with Solo being the only pup. Now she has an unending curiousity to go downstairs and visit the new litter. We keep her away at this time because of Emma’s protectiveness. Our youngest female, Solo, has never seen a litter of pups, so she is not aware of much difference in our house yet. Like an only child being forced to adjust to another baby brought into the house, however, Riley has been a little over the top with her need for attention and affection. Here she is over the past several days trying to be sure we haven’t forgotten about her. She still thinks she is at times a puppy.

She is one beautiful dog and can be regal at times, and in the next moment full of mischief.She always looks angelic when sleeping.

All goldens love to cuddle and Riley is no exception. The closer to your face the better, and at times it seems they are almost ready to “purr” with pleasure, especially with the added bonus of a tennis ball in their mouths.

Goldens are social animals and not with just people. If exposed at a young age, they get along very easily with other creatures like cats.

At eight weeks of life they have that legendary “golden coat”, but their personalities are somewhat hidden until they feel comfortable in their environment. Here Sydney Waller is doing her conformation and temperment testing before we brought her home.

And here Riley is spending one of her first day’s with us.

Amazing how time does quickly pass. But each day is an adventure and blessing with a golden by your side! I hope this “Riley flashback in time” will raise the level of anticipation for all our friends and clients who are counting down the eight weeks until their own adventures begin.

Stay tuned for more new puppy pictures. All are doing well.

Yesterday Ron and Barb reported that they had lost their beloved Emma to kidney disease. Seven plus years old, she is the first offspring of our Abby’s 27 pups to follow her over the “Rainbow Bridge”. At least she will be immortalized here in our blog (Please also see the prior posting “Sisters and Best Friends“).

However I will always remember her as the precocious puppy that Ron sent us a picture of soon after getting her from us. Here she is in that classic golden puppy pose… eyes bright, a golden smile on her face, and the world to explore and share.

We have lost five dogs so far in our relatively short time of breeding goldens. It is never easy to say goodbye. It seems to me that dogs have only three seasons of life compared to our four. Their Spring and Summer years are obvious. It seems though that there is no Autumn. For most of them, a sudden illness occurs that manifests itself as a change in behavior or appetite. The diagnosis is made and then they are gone before you have even a chance to adjust to the harsh reality of their illness. Their Winter is a short fierce storm that leaves us lonely and hearbroken.

The only saving grace is that our animals have no awareness of their end. They live in the moment and that is enough for them. Would that we had that luxury sometimes.

Our deepest condolences go out to Ron and Barb and their family.