Lost Souls: Found! Inspiring Stories about Golden Retrievers, Vol. II

By Kyla Duffy

Lost Souls: FOUND! Inspiring Stories About Golden Retrievers, Vol. II continues this series’ heartwarming tradition of sharing stories about Golden Retrievers who have been rescued, fostered, and adopted. You’ll find a wide variety of stories inside about Golden Retrievers who have been saved from dire situations as far away as Beirut and as close as your home state.

These true stories address the cruelty of animal neglect and abuse and the joy adopted dogs bring to their new homes. This book is a must-read for Golden Retriever lovers and people who are considering adding dogs to their family. Proceeds support Golden Retriever rescue groups.

Excerpt: "After being our foster dog for more than five months, Ruby hit a roadblock when my husband, Joe, left on a work trip. My choices were to put her on the anti-anxiety prescription I had filled for her a couple of months earlier or to practice “tough love” by making her do the things that bothered her. I opted for tough love and even made her go to agility. Joe thought I was nuts, and the last thing he said was, “Don’t lose her.” Of course, I dropped her leash as soon as we got out of the car on busy Rt. 4..." -Pat Johnson

Read more about Ruby and other great Golden Retrievers inside!

• Language: English
• Publisher: Kyla Duffy
• Release date: Apr 29, 2013
• ISBN: 9781301292882

Kyla Duffy

Happy Tails Books is driven by a passion to help needy animals by raising awareness about adoption and the proper care of domestic dogs and cats. We are grateful to our volunteer photographers and editors who help us make these books come to life. Happy Tails Books donates up to 25% of gross profits back to rescue organizations. Any rescue enrolled in our rescue partner program is eligible for a donation from each sale made through this website. You can indicate your favorite rescue on the check-out form when you make a purchase. Since 2009, Happy Tails Books has published more than 1,000 stories from people who have fostered and/or adopted dogs and cats! Co-editors Kyla Duffy and Lowrey Mumford are dog lovers who have been publishing the Lost Souls: FOUND! series since 2009. Lowrey knows journalism, and Kyla has experience in entrepreneurship; this has created the perfect synergy for the Happy Tails Books project. Lowrey and Kyla have two adopted dogs each, and they continue to support the rescues in their communities.

Book preview

Introduction: Retriever Reflections

We just returned from our annual September vacation to the outer banks in North Carolina. We took our Golden Retrievers with us, of course, and the way each one experienced the beach highlighted the wonderful qualities of the breed.

It was Runaway Ruby’s first trip to the beach. Being a water dog, Ruby spent hours in the pool and at the beach every day. She loved it, even though she had several accidents on the floor and jumped off a second story balcony. She was jumping to get to us, not away from us, which I guess is a good thing, especially considering her penchant for running away. Luckily, she didn’t get hurt. In a previous life, this girl must have been a goat.

Harry is happy on land or at sea, but he constantly reminds me of the merits of adopting older dogs instead of buying puppies. On the first day at the beach, Harry almost decapitated himself when he was so focused on chasing a seagull that he missed seeing the rope blocking off one of the dunes. I wish I could say he learned his lesson, but the next morning he ran into the ocean after pelicans and surfed back to shore over and under large, crashing waves.

At home, Harry regularly gives me grief on walks when he sees birds or small animals, like that time recently when I had to tell him to leave the toad outside. And, once, as a hawk flew overhead, he bolted for it so hard that I couldn’t hold the leash. When I finally caught up with him, his retractable leash was tangled around a branch in my neighbor’s front yard. Imagine the spectacle as I struggled to get him unstuck, dripping sweat from my unexpected jog, in my ’jama top, yesterday’s dirty shorts, orange socks, and purple shoes (hey, it was early!).

Maddie is more of a mole hunter than a swimmer. She did her one obligatory lap in the pool before frolicking in the sand, steering clear of the ocean waves.

As for Anna, this was her ninth trip to the outer banks, and she seemed…older. She spent most of her time with my daughter, April, and her partner, Kevin. She didn’t play on the beach as much as she used to, but she did run and dive into the pool after tennis balls.

At night, Anna seemed to have trouble getting up. This was a jolt to me. Had she been struggling for a while without my noticing? I hoped she had just over-exercised, but as a precaution, I immediately began giving her Synovi G3 again and ordered some Cosequin DS, both of which are joint supplements for dogs.

Time goes by fast, so it was good to spend a week playing with our pups. My husband and I love this breed and couldn’t imagine not being involved with rescue. Many people think that because Golden Retrievers are such wonderful, popular dogs they couldn’t possibly end up on the streets or in shelters, but this is simply not the case. Great dogs end up homeless for myriad reasons, but thanks to the efforts of all the good people who donate, volunteer their time, and extend their hearts, many don’t stay that way for long.

If you have been lucky enough to have a Golden or a rescued dog in your life, you’ll surely find stories that you can relate to within this book. And the next time you think of adding a dog to your life, think about contacting a rescue or shelter; adopting a dog is a golden opportunity to help an animal in need and to enrich your own life in wondrous ways that are hard to fathom until you experience it for yourself. -Pat Johnson, Golden Retriever Rescue of Southern Maryland Founder and President

INSPIRING STORIES ABOUT GOLDEN RETRIEVERS, VOL II

Peaceful Warrior

We adopted Barley through Great Lakes Golden Retriever Rescue (GLGRR) about 4½ years ago. He is a beautiful Golden/Labrador-mix with lion-colored hair that feels like the silky pile of a thick, expensive rug. The white on his face belies his otherwise youthful appearance and provides character. It’s the kind of face that makes you smile. Speaking of smiles, Barley has many. There’s his riding in the car, looking from side to side smile, his mealtime smile, and his extra-happy tongue hanging out smile, which he shows us when he knows he’s about to get a ride in the car (at which point we go back to the first smile-type).

My husband, Denny, and I started looking to adopt when we believed our Wheaten Terrier, Biskit, needed a companion of the four-legged variety. A few months earlier, she had lost her sister and fought cancer, which involved surgery and radiation treatments. Since she was well on her way to full recovery, it was time for her to get a new friend. After an extensive search, Biskit had a new big brother named Barley.

It’s easy to remember the date that Barley became a part of our lives – April 24th – because it was also Denny’s birthday. We had found Barley on the GLGRR adoption website after he had been in foster care near Grand Rapids for about eight months. Following several conversations with his foster parents and a successful meet-and-greet with Biskit, we decided that he was the one. Denny made the drive from New Buffalo to Grand Rapids to pick up Barley, while Biskit and I waited at home.

The round trip took more than four hours, and maintaining patience as I waited for Denny and Barley to return was not easy. Biskit knew it. I have always been amazed at the way dogs so readily pick up on our emotions, and, as usual, Biskit wasn’t missing a thing. She was watching intently, focused on me with a look of anticipation. She was waiting right along with me.

Although Biskit and Barley seemed to like each other during their meet-and-greet, we had no idea how they would do living together. As we waited for Barley to arrive, I bounced ideas off Biskit, my attentive listener, as to the best way to introduce Barley to his new home. In the end, we decided on greeting Denny and Barley outside and then taking a walk together to downtown New Buffalo.

Walking with Barley that day was more like a run. He was fast, full of energy, and clearly excited about being in a strange place after the long ride. He stopped and sniffed a lot, and Biskit followed his lead. To this day, we still walk that same route together every morning, and Biskit still likes to play follow-the-leader with Barley.

Once home, Barley was curious, as expected, taking plenty of time to sniff around and investigate. He especially loved his new fenced-in yard, where he could walk and wander all he wanted. He loved being outside.

Inside, Barley immediately recognized his special blanket on the floor of the den, which came with him from his foster home. It did not take long to find out that Barley loves blankets, pillows, and dog beds. Today he has soft items on which he can lounge in every room, but that special blanket still remains in the den.

From the beginning, as we saw how he actually observed his new environment, we could see that Barley was unique. He never intruded. He was tolerant, accepting, and patient, and he had an uncanny air of peacefulness, unlike anything we had ever seen in either dogs or humans. He picked up on patterns and fit right in. Barley showed us wisdom, a trait rarely attributed to a dog. We saw this in his humble demeanor. He just knew how to adapt. He exhibited good manners. If both dogs wanted a drink, he would step back, allowing Biskit to drink first. The same thing applied to going outside and coming back in. We’ve come to realize that these are Barley’s ways. After 4½ years, he is still the same.

Initially, Barley slept in the den on his blanket. It took him a few weeks to move into the hall outside our bedroom door, and then, after a month or so, he came into our room and made his bed in the closet, which we quickly dubbed his man cave. Soon he began following Denny everywhere. We’ll never know if the attachment developed because of the trip home together or something else, but it was the beginning of a relationship that can only be described as inseparable. When Denny moves, Barley moves. If Barley doesn’t have Denny in his sight, he searches every room until he finds him.

Barley’s attachment to Denny, combined with his loving, sweet demeanor, has had a significant effect on us, causing us to change the way we do things. These days we take Biskit and Barley virtually everywhere with us, and we go out of our way to help our dogs live good lives. We would