Toby

      

Hello all,
You heard correctly -- Allan and I are now a mom and dad. You're wondering what happened to the gestation period? We adopted a wonderful, loving gentle golden retriever from a rescue group in Sacramento. His name is Toby and we wanted to tell you all about him.

We found Toby through an amazing organization called the Homeward Bound Golden Retriever Sanctuary. (www.homewardboundgoldens.org). He is ten years old and is as gentle, sweet, loving, and calm as a dog could possibly be. Not to mention beautiful! His story is that he came through the golden rescue once before and was adopted by a first-time dog owner who completely fell for him. Before long, we hear, she was wearing his picture on a t-shirt and had gone dog-crazy. Sadly, she passed away earlier this year and Toby went to live with one of her sons who took him in memory of his mom but who didn't really want to have or take care of a dog. Toby developed a bad skin condition and fleas and it wasn't a very good living situation. When the woman's other son, a really wonderful and friendly man with two dogs of his own, saw what had happened, he arranged to take Toby back to the rescue and find a better permanent home for him. That's where we came in.

We picked Toby up yesterday afternoon and knew before we even left the place how wonderful he was going to be. He lay calmly in the back seat for the entire 2 hour drive back to San Francisco. Once we were home, he quickly settled in, seems to love his dog bed, and hung out with us last night watching a movie. I think that it took about six hours for me to fall totally and completely in love with him. He is the perfect dog for us. He seems to mostly want a family to spend time with and love, and he's so gentle and loves people, other dogs, and seemingly just everyone he has so far encountered. He's sleeping at (basically on) my feet as I write this email. He's pretty knocked out from a walk he, Allan, and I took this morning. 

Our downstairs neighbor, Nikki, is going to let him out during the day while we are at work. We can't wait for all of you to meet him! We're thinking of having a dog-warming party to introduce him to everyone. We'll let you know when we get it planned. (Maybe not until after the holidays). 

Love,
Meredith and Allan