When my husband and I built our first house, I begged for a Golden. He always said no. He said they were too big and we didn't have the room for one. (For the record, our house is 2014 sq. ft.) I got tired of him saying no so I quit asking.
In March of 2009, my husband and I went on vacation. We visited a friend in Charlotte, NC, then drove to visit friends in Fredricksburg, MD and then visited a friend in Washington, DC. We were eating lunch in DC one afternoon, having a conversation having nothing to do with dogs. All of a sudden my husband says to me, "If you want to get a dog, we can get a dog." "What kind of dog can we get?" I asked. "If you want a Golden Retriever, we can get a Golden Retriever," he told me. We returned from vacation and began the search for our dog.
A few days later my husband found someone who had puppies for sale. I emailed her to find out if there were any left. She called me immediately and told me there were 2 left and that she'd send info and pictures. She then proceeded to ask me a laundry list of questions about me, my family and our lifestyle. We passed the round of questions and told her we would look at the pictures and let her know which we chose. It was a difficult choice - Golden puppies are so cute! I couldn't decide, so I left that to my husband. He had the choice between the biggest in the litter (who we were told was a huge cuddler) and the runt of the litter (the "life of the party"). He chose the "life of the party." 2 weekends later, we made the 2 and a half hour trek down to Madison, IN to finally pick up the Golden I'd always wanted.
It was love at first sight. The second I saw him I said "Oh my gosh, I love him!" We held our little 7.5 lb puppy as he shook and talked with the breeder. We left and I held him on my lap the entire drive home. We finally got home and began our lives with our newest family member. As the time went on, the "runt" grew bigger and bigger. He's now 100 lbs and simply big even by Golden Retriever standards.
I wanted a Golden because I think dogs that like to swim are so cool. 10% of Golden Retrievers don't like to swim. We have one. We'll take him to the dog park that has a pond for the dogs. He'll get in it in the shallow area and sit down and dunk his face in it but he won't swim. I also think dogs that like to play fetch are cool. He thinks fetch is stupid. He'll go get a ball or toy once or twice but then he's done. He loves to play frisbee but on his terms and when he wants. He doesn't necessarily do the typical Golden things but that's ok with me. He's a big sweet boy. He loves to cuddle. He loves to rough house. He's happiest just laying around being with his people. He's always with me. Follows me everywhere. Always sits right by me. We often joke we should have named him Shadow or Glue.
Even before Corbin was born, Granger loved him. He would go and lay in his room in front of the crib and take a nap. It was so cute. The day we brought Corbin home from the hospital, Granger ran over to meet him. He immediately gave him kisses. If Granger went outside, when he came back in, he would run over to the swing and give Corbin kisses on his little feet. We already dreaded the day we'd have to explain to Corbin that Granger was in heaven. We figured Corbin would hopefully be 5 or 6 when that conversation would happen. Unfortunately that's not how life has played out and instead of explaining to Corbin that Granger was gone, we had to explain to Granger that Corbin was gone.
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