We brought Artemis home on September 15. She was 11 weeks old and the last of her litter to be adopted.
I had been poking around the Facebook Golden Retriever puppy pages ever since a respectful amount of time had passed after having to put Sunny down in the beginning of January. I saw this one was available in the afternoon, talked to Matt about it, and by dinner we were planning our trip over to meet her. Matt instructed us all to “Be Cool” when we are there, because this is the first dog we are going to visit, and we might not come home with her, but if we all lose our cool, it will be a lot harder to make good decisions.
No one was cool.
Matt and Charlie in the 30 minutes between when we met Artie and when we took her home.
I grew up with a golden retriever, the sainted ElDorado (ElDo). ElDo was a very good boy. And about 90 pounds his whole life. So I was surprised to lead that Artie will probably only get to about 60-65 pounds. This will make her the smallest dog our family has ever had—Casey and Sunny were both around 80 pounds.
I learned that there are “show goldens” which ElDo was and “field bred goldens” which Artie is. We might expect Artie to need lots and lots of exercise and training as she grows up. But, you know, don’t we all?
ElDo, of blessed memory. He makes today’s sweeping up of golden retriever hair feel nostalgic.