Monday, June 20, 2011

New Addition

For Anna's 10th birthday, we told her she could get what she's been begging for forever - a dog of her own.  Specifically, a golden retriever.  Since then we've been working with Gold Ribbon Rescue, getting approved, then waiting for a match.

As it happened, they got a mom and a litter of puppies.  "They are 95% Golden Retriever!" they told me.  "Are you interested?"  Hmm, not sure how they came up with that percentage, but we were mildly interested.   There is a new DNA test available to find out what breeds a dog is made of.  Its quite accurate on mildly mixed dogs, not so much for very mixed mutts.  I asked if I paid for the test, could we DNA test the litter?  They decided yes, and I met the mom (a Golden looking sweet female, but only 40lbs, muzzle too short to be all Golden Retriever) and the adorable fuzzikins that were her litter.  I drew blood from one of them, and sent it to the lab.

Three long weeks later, the results came back -- 75% Golden Retriever!  Of the grandparents, 3 were purebred Goldens, and one was a very mixed mutt, with markers for Basenjis, English Wolfhound, Spinone Italiano -- but none of the breeds I wanted to avoid.  With summer vacation upon us, we knew there would be no better opportunity to get a puppy.

I mean, how could you resist this?

 Anna did not actually know she was getting a puppy until we actually went to pick him up.  It was love at first sight!
 She has named him TOBY, and he's won all our hearts.  Well, Francesca (my 5 yo catahoula) is still a little grumpy.  And Anna is learning just how much work a new puppy really is.  We've had him for 3 weeks now, and he's grown quite a bit from these pictures.
 But he's still very precious!

6 comments:

Lula said...

Those eyes!!! Those sweet little goldie curls!!! Mr. Toby is so cute, I can see why you couldn't resist him!

Emily said...

He is precious! I'm definitely in love with him, too.

Anonymous said...

Lucky Anna. And lucky lucky Toby!

Lisa said...

So adorable! Cheers, Anna!

Unknown said...

his little mush in these pics oh my -- he looks like he has a little french moustachio!

Anonymous said...

What a lovely picture of Anna and Toby..she deserves a little pet of her own now..I think Anna will make a good 'mommy' for Toby. :)



Aunty Norma.x