Success Story: Misty (#1536)

Adopted June 23rd, 2007

Hi, I'm Misty! I lost my previous human to cancer. I stayed by her side hoping she would get better. I tried with all my might to make her better, but this did not work. I was so worried all of the time. When my previous human knew she was becoming ill, she contacted Golden Bond Rescue on my behalf. She entrusted Golden Bond to find me the perfect forever home. This is when I met my special friend, Jude, from Golden Bond. Jude visited me frequently and comforted my previous human. Then one day, I had visitors who were traveling through my neck of the woods to photograph. These visitors, who have had one other Golden Bond retriever named Scarlett, were interested in becoming my future humans and caregivers.  I was not ready to leave my very ill human just yet. I still needed to be by my human and care for her. My visitors, Jim and Cheryl, understood my situation.  Little did I know at the time, Jim and Cheryl had committed to taking care of me and becoming my forever home when the time was right. Three months later, it became necessary that I leave my human and begin my new life on the Southern Oregon Coast with Jim and Cheryl.

And what a life it is! We are always on the go, go, go! At first, I could hardly walk on the gravel driveway as the pads of my feet were so tender. I needed assistance getting into the car as the necessary muscles were not toned enough to "leap" into the car. I had skin issues, and I did not know how to use a doggie door. I had many, many worry lines on my face. Now, my life on the Oregon Coast includes hiking, canoeing, digging for gophers, running on the beach, fetching my Frisbee, attending classes at the community college with Jim and Cheryl, and lots of car rides. My eyes sparkle with life and my worry lines are gone.

I am a gentle lady and am never any trouble at all. I meet and greet my humans with my teddy bear, plush bone or plush ball in my mouth, as I am truly a golden and love stuff in my mouth. The pads on my feet are getting tougher, I am learning to use the doggie door, the cooler coastal weather is helping my skin issues, and I can leap into the car without assistance now that I exercise on a daily basis. Cheryl brushes me everyday, which feels really good on those areas I can't reach.  As you can see, I am very photogenic, which is a good thing as Jim is a professional photographer. I have no problem smiling at the camera. Jim, Cheryl and I get to travel to beautiful places for Jim to use his camera.

I do bark at cars and the UPS man when I hear them in the driveway.No worries - it is only dog speak. Feels kinda good to do dog things like protect my territory and harass the UPS man. Jim and Cheryl tell me that a little bit of dog speak is good.

I now have acres of forest and trails to wander on and sniff, sniff, sniff and I mean SNIFF. None of these new smells gets past my nose.  They are all so wonderful and different. I have 2 llama friends, Coco and Salvadore. Jim and Cheryl hike with Coco and Salvadore.  The llamas have their very own day packs, and I have recently acquired a doggie day pack so I too can participate in the llama hikes. We have to be responsible hikers you know: take out what you take in. Besides I really do not like to leave home without Teddy, and he fits nicely into one of the compartments. I must say both my doggie day hiking pack and my doggie "float coat" look wonderful on me. My float coat feels like a girdle; however, my float coat and I will come to terms as soon as we get used to each other and I loose a few more pounds. My indoor house fur friend is a Birman cat named Metta.  I suppose I need to use the word "friend" loosely as Metta is taking her time adjusting to another fur person living in the house. Before I came along, she was the princess. Right now, I am certain that she thinks I am the "pea." I am so glad I am not a cat. What a silly life they lead always sleeping or cleaning or spitting up fur balls and never getting excited, happy, or bouncy about anything - and then to top it off they stay awake all night long - GO FIGURE!

I sleep wherever I want to, except for the couch. The couch here is off limits.  I have been told that it was made to fit human posteriors. Hummmmm, this couch must be a special made couch. My previous couch seemed to fit me just fine and must have been special made for reclining retrievers.  Otherwise, it is a free for all here at home.  I am so well behaved that the "NO" word has not been used - well, with the exception of that darn special made for human posteriors couch and the one time I got so excited about going for a car ride I leaped into the front seat of the car. The front seat is Cheryl's seat, my seat is the entire back seat. Did you notice I used the word "leaped!"

A special thanks goes to my wonderful friend, Jude, who put so much "heart" into finding me my new forever home. Thank you Diana M. and Golden Bond, and thanks to Sharon and all my friends who cared for me at Prairie House.

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