Finally!

After 15 years of my mom hounding local author and photographer extraordinaire Rob O'Neal shoot her golden retrievers, it has finally happened.  Yep, who should be on page 2 of Paradise in the Key West Citizen than yours truly.  Thankfully, I was prepared and dressed for my big day in  the spotlight.  Thanks Tia Monica for the tie and fashion tips.    Hopefully this will open up more modeling opportunities.  Orvis...are you listening out there?

Snow, Glorious Snow

For anyone who does not like snow, let me say this.  If you wore a fur coat like mine all day and lived in Key West,  you would be singing a different tune.  My parental units took me to a place called North Carolina.  Now mind you, I had never been north of Orlando so just leaving Florida was quite an adventure.  I loved North Carolina.  I want to be a Tar Heel in my next life.   North Carolina has much  better weather than Florida.  It was like 30 degrees! For me this a huge selling point.  Secondly, I could run around, in the mountains like sporting dog I am.  It was glorious! But the best part was the white stuff all over the ground.  It felt great on my back, on feet on my nose.  It was heaven.  I can't wait to go back!

RIP Nasdaq

The Golden Retriever world lost a great dog this week with the passing of Ch. Fallchase First Call.  We knew him as Nasdaq.  He was my sire and an amazing dog all the way around.

I had the good fortune of meeting Nasdaq on a couple of occasions.  My breeder, Teri Vautrain of Moonstruck Golden Retrievers, holds reunions for all of her puppy litters.  I was part of her second littler, the Moonstruck 8. At my first reunion, I reunited with my 7 litter mates, my brothers and sisters from the previous litter and the great Nasdaq.  With that many golden retrievers running around it was like a three ring circus.  Nonetheless, I still managed to squeeze in some quality time with my dad.  That's my brother Frisco on the left, me in the middle and Nasdaq.

Here's another great shot of Frisco, Nasdaq and me.  

Our thoughts and prayers go out to Nasdaq's human family, John and Randi Moesler.  We thank them for sharing Nasdaq with us.

It's Good to be Hawkeye

Admittedly, I lead a pretty good life.  I live in Key West with amazing people, have a cat,  and I go to work every day and supervise people.  Being a retriever, I was built for water.  Lucky for me and my webbed feet,  I have pool.   

I have a Labrador Retiriever buddy, named Inky, who comes down every summer with his family.  His dad has a really cool camera that does movies in slow motion, so you can practically see every hair on my body move (take it from me, it's a a lot of hair).  I feel like Steve Austin from the Six Million Dollar Man.  Trust me, after what the folks have spent on me, I'm the Six Million Dollar Dog

Where has the time gone?

It is not often that a golden retriever gets embarrassed.  We do a lot silly things all the time and we take them in stride.  But imagine my shock and horror when I discovered that I had not posted in over two years!  Wow.  And a lot has happened to me in that time.

Last summer I tore my ACL.  I can tell it was not a whole lot of fun.  I am not sure what was worse, the surgery or that stupid Elizabethan collar I was supposed to wear.  The folks at Marathon Animal Hospital took amazing care of me.

Unfortunately, due to a series of situations, my implant did not take.  That's the bad news, well that and another surgery with another three weeks of the damn Elizabethan collar.  The good news is that Dr. Doug felt the scar tissue that had built up on my knee would be enough to support my leg so while I had to have a second surgery to remove the implant, I would not have to have another put in.  So after lots of love and patience, three months off my office job, Dr. Doug said I was good to go. 

My only problem at this point was getting my hair to grow out.  Talk about having a bad hair day!  I had a bad six months!

The Pool Fool

If you ever saw my feet, you would know I am a swimming fool. Mark Spitz and Michael Phelps don't have anything on me. What I have discovered is that if I am in the shallow end of the pool, I can stand on my hind legs, which makes things, like getting over-sized balls, a whole lot easier.

Update on the cat

I am sure many of you are wondering how Callie and I are getting along these days. Last time you saw us together I was just a little 45 pound pipsqueak up against a 12 pound cat. Now I am a 75 monster against 12 pound cat!

The cat so digs me. The way I can tell is she now comes down stairs and hangs out with me. Well, maybe not me, but she does come down stairs during the day and she sleeps on the couch while I sleep on the floor. I haven't quite figured it out but there seems to be something wrong with the sleeping arrangements.

As you can see by the video, the cat adores me. She can't wait to be near me and shower me with love and affection.