I’m sorry for your sad experience and especially for the poor dog. However, I must correct you on one point you made. Golden Retriever Rescue of Wisconsin (GRROW.org) is a wonderful group where I got my big fur ball 11 years ago. Yes, they do ask a lot of questions, but I just laughed aboutit. I had to write an essay on by perfect “forever” dog of my dreams. However, they actually paid no attention to it. Following is an approximate transcript of the conversation:
“Hello, Mrs. D, we have found a dog we’d like you to meet.”
“Oh, how exciting. Is it a female?”
“No, male.”
“Is he four?”
“No, about 1 and a half.”
“Is he blonde?”
“No, red.”
“Is he housebroken and does he have good hips?”
“Yes.”
“Well, I don’t know. We wanted a 4 year old female, blonde dog.”
“You really should see this dog. There is no obligation, and he’s something special.”
Well, they were right about that! He was (and is) something special. He set one paw on my front porch and I fell instantly in love with him. He was so evenly dark in color that his eyes matched his fur — a rich, copper color. He was wild and untrained, but he learned fast and really has been no trouble at all. We went through dog school together and agility training until I got too old to keep up with him. He is white-faced now, but we still love him to pieces.
He’s traveled all over the country with us, but I had to make a recent trip to CA and had to leave him at the kennel because of the circumstances surrounding our trip. He was so happy to see me when I picked him up it was like one of those “dog-greets-soldier” videos, except I’m a lady (and not a war hero).
GRROW is a wonderful organization that has found homes for more than 1000 dogs. They have reunions about twice a year. All of the dogs are held in homes in foster care -— not cages. Everybody can bring back their dogs for a dog party. So, all rescue organizatons are not created equal.
Don’t get me started on the “Poodle Rescue” that my daughter dealt with in NY. They don’t even see the dogs — it’s all done by telephone, and there seems to be some funny business going on. She eventually got a wonderful, 8 year ikd dog that was a mess — unwashed, unclipped, infected, etc. She enjoyed him 8 years until he died. Getting her 2nd poodle was the same thing all over again, and she finally got a 1 year old pup from a breeder with health problems.
BTW, have you ever been to a dog party? It’s been several years, but we played party games the last time I went. If you can imagine being in a room with more than 50 Golden Retrievers (and trying to juggle a plate and eat your brat) you can get a sense of what it is like.
Anyhow, I have to tell you about “dog bowling”. They set up 2 liter empty plastic soda pop containers in the configuration of bowling pins. The competitors are supposed to walk, or run, their dogs through the bottles. The dog that knocks down the most bottles wins a prize. Sounds easy?
Not so fast.
Nearly ALL of the Goldens avoid the bottles. Mine jumped OVER all of them to great laughter. “We can tell that’s an agility dog,” they shouted. Most of them carefully picked their way through the maze of bottles and knocked over very few. I think the winner knocked over only 2 (clumsy dog).
Your story made me laugh! I do photos every year for our local EGRR (golden rescue down here) and always have a good time meeting the dogs and their families. What a great bunch! When someone calls me for a puppy I usually ask them if they have considered a rescue first. Sometimes they end up doing just that. It does my heart good.