The funny puppy grew up

I watched a very cute video on YouTube called "Breakfast at Ginger's". For you that haven't seen it:

Breakfast at Ginger's video

There are always other videos featured on the sidepanels of YouTube: sleepy puppies, Golden puppy this and Golden puppy that. Well, that got me to thinking about my last Golden puppy and how funny he was; growing up to be such a handsome boy and all. His name is Devo and like MaxMom and her Max, he was MY heart dog.

Devo, 8 weeks old

Devo 6 weeks old

Devo 1 year old, bored Cosmo in the background

Devo 6 years old

Devo 8 years old

Devo 10 years old - still a puppy at heart

Bath day for Lady

Probably not the most flattering picture of Lady, on her back in the bath tub, but from comments by employees at the U-Bathe-Em doggy emporiums we frequent, very few owners bathe their dogs this way. Lady, like my other Goldens, tolerates her baths and cooperates fully with only a little coaxing from Dad. Not bad for a 10 year old rescue girl. I'm pretty sure she never had to do this before. Leaving her special shampoo on for 10 minutes (her belly is critical) has cleared up the nagging skin problems she had last year. So now everyone is happy and Lady always gets complemented on her lovely coat. Needless to say, she loves that, especially when it is followed by much petting and cooing.

Wordless Wednesday - newly discovered pictures

Happy Father's Day

To my Dad - JT

AND....

Keeping with the Golden theme, Sunny - PaPa dog to 24 beautiful Golden puppies (including: Toby, Cosmo & Ellie)

A little break

Lady and I are on an extended break this week. We hope to be back on-line soon. In the meantime, we will still be visiting all of our friend's blogs as much as possible. Ciao for now.

No strings attached

This post is for our friend Jack who desperately needs to be freed from his strings so he can do what all Labs do - run, fetch, swim, run, fetch, swim, run, fetch, swim, run, fetch, swim, run, fetch, swim, run, fetch, swim (oh yea, its Jack - disclaimer, not necessarily in that order).

A standing invitation to join us anytime.

We went last weekend, but dumb Dad left his memory stick at home (the one in the camera wise guy).

Swimming at the dog park - 2009 post

All pictures from the 2009 dog park swim

Wandering Wednesday

Lady investigating the presence of chipmunks.

"I'm sure there were some over there....no wait, over THERE"

The Pack

This weekend, while digging through boxes in the garage, I uncovered a rare picture depicting the time when my Pack grew to 4 happy sporting dogs. Bear with me while I tell their story. It's 1992, Bellevue, WA - here they are anxiously waiting to go for a ride to the park. Let me introduce you:
L to R
- Sadie, 3 years old, Half Golden, Half Lab
- Sunny aka PaPa Dog, 6 years old, Golden
- Cosmo, 18 months and behind, in the shadows is her sister Ellie (these gorgeous girls were from Sunny's 2nd litter)

This was a very special time for all of us. Sadie would soon be adopted by Andi's mom who was widowed and had bonded with Sadie like nothing I had ever seen. Ellie had just been returned to us after enduring a difficult year at a place that did not understand her needs as a Golden. We had four dogs for a month and then three dogs after Sadie went to live with Grambo. For the rest of her life, Sadie was always a member of our pack even though she lived a few miles away. Funny how they never forget.

Sunny, Sadie and Cosmo at Grambo's house - 1994

Ellie was a special case. She came to us skittish, skinny and lacking the natural self-confidence that permeated all Sunny puppies we had ever known. We had made up our minds to keep her permanently; she fit so well with the pack. Her sister dog Cosmo was so mellow, smart and confident that she had become (before Ellie's arrival) our loaner Golden! Several of our trusted friends would take her for a walks, or to the park and once; on a three day camping trip in the Cascade mountains! Cosmo was such a natural with humans, she knew exactly what to do and when.

The girls - 10 years old - 2001

Friends Chad and Kathleen were amazed at how wonderful having a Golden Retriever was after spending 3 days in the mountains with Cosmo. They also adored Ellie and 3 months later, asked if we would consider letting them adopt Ellie. They had a new house with a yard and Ellie was their first child!! It was a match made in heaven. Ellie grew into a healthy, confident girl who received as much unconditional love as she gave. It was the happiest ending we could have ever hoped for.

Needless to say they are all gone now, waiting for us at the Rainbow bridge. They all had long, healthy, happy lives with their peeps. Cosmo lived to be 15 - still a record for our Goldens.

I started this blog in early 2008 to chronicle the history of my Golden friends and to honor their memory.  The Links below are my early entries - which explains the original name of this blog....
"My Golden K9 History"

Sunny aka PaPa Dog

Sadie

Cosmo's story

Cosmo and Ellie

Cosmo with Sunny

Question of the day

Wordless Wednesday

Remembrance of ALL who sacrificed 1775-2010

Versatile Blogger Award

Sugar passed on the Versatile blogger Award to me. I went around the internet to try and find who started this thing but it was an impossible task! So, with a few mild modifications here goes….

Rules for accepting this award:

1. Thank the person who gave you this award.

2. Share 7 things about yourself.

3. Pass the award along to bloggers who you have recently discovered (or old friends) and who you think are fantastic!

4. Contact the bloggers you’ve picked and let them know about the award.

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#1 Our Thanks go out to Sugar the Golden Retriever aka Rock Star Pooch. My very first follower and the one who started the ball rolling, introducing me to many doggie bloggie friends.

#2A Share Seven things about Lady:

1. Loves to chew and eat ice cubes

2. She loves belly rubs

3. Lady will PAW you if you don't give her enough attention

4. Surprisingly good swimmer

5. Not a very good retriever

6. Very tough and confident, doesn't put up with any aggressive crap from other dogs

7. Prefers the company of small children and is very protective of them

2B Share Seven things about myself

1. I can juggle

2. Beets are my least favorite food ever

3. I played drums in a weekend gig, country rock band from 77-81 (don’t worry, I had a day job)

4. I love the beach and the surf, but other than that, I don’t do water sports or boats

5. I’ve been to Singapore (and loved it)

6. I like cats, but could never own one

7. I can read a raw data capture from the Internet

#3 Bloggers I would like to recognize:

Kim at Golden Pines - http://lifeatgoldenpines.blogspot.com/

Thor from Brazil - http://meupequenograndethor.blogspot.com/

Jack and TG from Tucson - http://dailydoseofjack.blogspot.com/

Skylar's Mom Kimmy - http://skylarmarie.blogspot.com/

Morgan, Mully and their Milkbone provider, artist supreme - http://art4milkbones.blogspot.com/

Luna and her Mom Elizabeth - http://dbwluna.blogspot.com/

Walkabout

Lady's favorite pee-mail and snooflin' spot is in the shadow of the community water towers. It's always our first stop before we do our 2-3 mile walk. She is what I call an "off leash 90 percenter". Considering she couldn't even walk ON the leash without pulling your arm out of its socket when she came to us; she has come a long way. Lady tries very hard to be the best she can be. I can tell that she really loves being off-leash when we are out and about (I'm sure that never happened in her past life). She goes into a different mode (highly distracted and excited) when she's at the dog park, which is just fine, its her time and special place.

Here are a few pictures from one of our walks this week. She is off-leash at the water towers and in front of the school.

Come on Dad, let's go, oh boy, oh boy, oh boy

Not The War of the Worlds, just our water towers !!

 Snooflin' done, pee mail checked and answered, time to get to a serious walkabout - see ya later.

Farewell to Max

MaxDog from South Africa has gone to the Rainbow Bridge. It has been a real pleasure knowing Max and learning all about South Africa. We will miss you buddy.

My personal favorite picture

The beau-beau guitar

A 1950s vintage Gibson acoustic guitar found at a pawn shop was the canvas for this amazing portrait done by Cosmo and Devos' favorite Aunt Lisa. Lisa and Uncle Jeff would dog sit every couple of months after we moved back to Seattle from Coeur d'Alene. They got to know the beau-beaus intimately. The guitar and the portrait was arranged by my wife Andi as a 10 anniversary gift in 2005 when the dogs were still with us. I was SO surprised and blown away by the incredible likeness of both dogs. Want to mention that Lisa is not a professional, just a very gifted and generous person. I will always treasure it. I just recently got around to taking a decent picture of the guitar. My fur-kids are with me every time I play.

Comments, Email and response - building the bridge

Here is the situation: I have a blog (KT-Goldens.blogspot.com) where Google account members, Followers and others can leave comments on a post (a common occurrence every day for most of us). When a comment is submitted, I receive an email notification that tells me who left it, what time and what it says. Sometimes I would like to respond privately via email to the commenter (a question was asked or a running gag is required!). When I select "REPLY to", occasionally the commenter's email address is filled in, but most of the time the "reply to" address is which goes nowhere.

If this comment and email response interests you, this is what needs to be set-up as the commenter and as a blog owner. I looked through the Google help section, but it was never addressed properly, so I just did a couple of experiments. I believe the following is the correct procedure.

Google blog owner: Under your settings tab, you must allow comment notification to a selected email address (Settings, Comments, Comment Notification Email). Whenever someone leaves a comment, blogger will send you an email with the details of that comment. If you want to respond to the commenter via that email, this can be done if the commenter allows it using the settings below. Otherwise, the address in the reply will be noreply-comment@blogger.com (goes nowhere).

Google member - Commenter: Allow an email address to be displayed on your profile page. This will be the address that shows as the "reply to" address when a blog owner receives notification that you have left a comment. This setting can be found on your blog's Dashboard-Edit profile-Show my email address - fill in an email address then check the box to allow.

Example: some of my blogger friends/Followers that I can respond to directly via an email notification when they leave a comment on a post at KT-Goldens....
- Kim at Golden Pines
- The lovely Khyra with the floofy tail
- Sammantha
- The Bumpass Hounds

I've had this set-up for 2 years and have found it valuable for personally responding to Followers and Commenter’s (whose settings allow it). No problems with spam as of yet!

So, if you don't have this set-up, and you ask a question about a post within your comment, unless your notification is on, that question may not get addressed in a timely manner (or at all !!).

I welcome any questions or corrections that may be needed on this subject. Just leave a comment to this post and I will respond ON THE COMMENTS PAGE so all can see.

And now a word from our sponsor.

The beautiful and WET - - - Miss Lady

Picture Perfect Wednesday

This portrait has been hanging in our living room(s) for 18 years. I finally spent some time and created a nice reproduction picture that would do it justice. This is young Cosmo and her PaPa Dog - Sunny. Cosmo is just shy of a year old and Sunny is 6. I never get tired of looking at this. The photographer (Brant in Bellevue, WA) did a superb job.

Cosmo and Sunny, 1992

Mt. St. Helens - 30 years ago today

For those of you that never experienced Mt. St. Helens before she blew her top, IMHO she was THE most beautiful and perfectly formed of all the Cascade peaks. Not only did she rock my world 30 years ago, but the destruction of this beautiful lady still saddens me even to this day.

I was standing on a softball field in Selah, WA on that fateful morning. In left field, I faced the mountain, but could not see it (very large foothills blocked my view). What I could see was the ash plume coming our way, dark as death with lightning flashing in its eyes as the hot ash met the cool northwest morning. Strangely enough, none of us heard anything. I knew the weather forecast was for perfect weather, so I was quite puzzled by this dark, ominous cloud that was beginning to blot out the southwestern sky. Before the inning ended, the Sheriff pulled into the parking lot and over his loudspeaker broke the news none of us could believe.

Off we drove, back to our hotel in Yakima to wait out whatever was in store for us. Before we arrived at the hotel, day turned to night and stayed that way until the following morning. As we lay around the hotel, I had visions of Pompei; finding me 500 years from now, encased in ash, laying on my hotel bed with a beer in my hand.

The heavy ash fallout after about 4 hours

Well, it wasn't THAT bad, but all the roads back to Seattle were closed the next morning, so a long circumnavigated route via Goldendale, Portland and up I5 would finally lead us back home. The I5 bridge over the Toutle River was restricted to one lane each way. Debris from the eruption was jammed up against the bridge supports and they ended up closing the bridge completely 10 minutes after we crossed.

I have visited the park since that day. To see the result of the awesome power that was released is humbling. Sometime after the eruption, scientists who were exploring the devastation found gophers alive and well in the blast zone, saved by their deep burrows. I don’t think a Holiday Inn would have sufficed! The circle of life never ceases to amaze me.

The road trip day-3

Day 3, Boise to Seattle

Nice weather so we made good time. Took our first stop in Oregon, at Baker City.

Oregon had the nicest and most plentiful rest stops. Decent pet areas and lots of room to roam

The Blue Mountains from high up on the hill above our rest area

Eastern Washington, Kittitas Valley just outside Ellensburg

Just when it looked like everything was going as planned, an awful traffic jam with no warning or opportunity to take another route. Thanks for the incompetence Washington DOT

Finally got home just before 8PM. Lady relaxes with Mr. Armadillo. 1600 miles, 3 days, she was good as gold. What a trooper. Lady proves again that she is one special girl.

The road trip day-2

~Cedar City, UT to Boise (day-2)

Day-2 the weather rolled in just before reaching Provo and we didn't get many good pictures in Utah. We did stop in Mountain Home, ID for a much needed romp in the park and a nice long walk.

In Utah, the first 80 MPH speed limit I have ever seen. The wind was blowing so hard (in our face of course) I never went over 70

  

Veterans Park, Mt. Home, ID - Lady thinks about changing careers

This park has some very interesting Pee Mail - lots of snoofling going on

Cool old moving trucks we saw on our walk in Mt. Home. Had a nice hotel in Boise, got upgraded to a suite, so Lady and I slept in the next morning, then took a nice stroll in the adjoining grass field (it was 40 degrees, brrrr).