We have eight dogs. If money wasn’t an issue, we’d probably have more. So how did we acquire a pure bred Golden Retriever and a pure bred Labrador Retrieve
r? In a way, I’d like to say that God pointed out the clues for us to find them, 100 percent free. The largest of the pack, Luciano “Pav” Pavarotti, our Labrador whose barks send out the highest decibels, was a dog that had to find a new home. Bought from Cartimar by parents of a four-year-old girl, it was only later on that she developed asthma. The “up-for-adoption” message about Pav was posted on Facebook in February by our dog trainer friend and we inquired. Even without a certificate, we were happy to have him a few days later. We were more than thrilled to have a very behaved and disciplined dog in contrast to the rather fierce but loveable and loyal aspin we had adopted earlier.
A month after, as a belated birthday gift, my sister who had purchased a female Golden Retriever in April was given a buy-one, take-one surprise and got another Golden Retriever. And the freebie that she got, we later christened with the name “Axl Rose.” At 26 years old and living the carefree life of a bachelorette, it was my sister’s first shot at trying out motherhood. Her Golden Retriever was training for when she would actually become a real mom. One was a handful and having another was a migraine. So she gave him to us. In a way we could see why
. Axl’s temperament is very playful. He grabs whatever attention he can get. Whether from the front or from behind, he always jump on you when the opportunity presents itself.
Appropriately during or a day after Valentine’s, we found Pav stuck to Britney Spears, our white slender Pinscher-looking aspin. Two months later, tah-dah! We had five beige babies who have grown to look exactly like their father. Dog food and vaccines are not the only concern we had to consider if we were to raise the babies too. It’s how we were also going to divide the time and energy to walk them, bathe them and clean up after. We may not have shelled out to invest in our dogs, but every dog owned becomes a huge emotional investment. Providing food and shelter are not enough to claim we are responsible dog owners. We have to love them all and shower that love equally. That’s tough if you have eight. So I’d have to retract my statement about having more dogs if money wasn’t an issue. If I had more that would
be animal hoarding. Just watch Animal Hoarders on the BIO channel!
I’ve always loved dogs. My wish list since I was seven was to have a Beagle (because of Snoopy), a Collie (because of Lassie) and then later on I wanted a Labrador and Golden Retriever (they were “the” dogs in many American TV shows). I thought the only way to get them was to save up a lot of money. Thankfully, I was wrong. There’s this wonderful thing called adoption.
So now, it’s our turn to pay it forward. We hope to give as much joy in finding the right parents as much as we had in receiving them. Our up-for-adoption sign is now posted.
by: Denise Roco