Andy 10-340

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Say hello to Andy! Andy is a 10 year old, sweet as pie, male Golden Retriever. Andy was surrendered to a shelter because his family had a new baby and could no longer care for him. Andy is a fantastic senior boy! I am rapidly falling in love with him. He came to me last Saturday in the middle of the snow storm, thanks to volunteers Mike and Kris! I melted the second I first saw his adorable face... he looks like a teddy bear! You just wanna snuggle him :) But, then I got a whiff.... he was soooo smelly :( and matted, and the insides of his ears were caked in mud. The poor thing. I let him chill out for a little bit by himself (he napped), then he met the resident dogs with tail wags, such a gentleman. Then, he met our little guy Maxwell (1 1/2 yr old toddler!)... kisses for him! What a boy! Then it was bath time! I scrubbed and suds and rinsed, then brushed and cut mats... he fell asleep on the warm towels after his bath and kept napping while I brushed and trimmed him up :) I kept telling him.... "your new life starts TODAY!". That night he slept happily on a soft blanket next to our bed.

Andy visited the vet on Monday for his wellness exam and microchip. Overall, he looks great for a senior boy. He is on the thin side at 63 lbs. (could gain a few lbs), his ears look great, and his heart and lungs sound good! YAY! We are still waiting on the all important bloodwork results (but do know he is heartworm negative). He will be neutered tomorrow, and have some dental work taken care of. His teeth are in pretty rough shape, and he will need one or more extracted. The vet was a bit concerned with the condition of his coat. It is very brittle and dry feeling, and a little thin. It almost feels as if it has been burnt! It could be just poor nutrition, or there could be something else going on. We will get those blood test results back tomorrow and that should give us some answers. For now, we are feeding him a high quality food, with some fish oil added, hoping that is all we need to do to improve his skin and coat. Fingers crossed for our boy!

Andy is house trained, and he has excellent manners. Knows basic commands, and is overall just a pure joy to have around. He looooves to be loved, and eats up every single pet and tummy rub with a huge smile on his face. He thinks he is a lap dog and will try and wiggle his way into your lap... he is pretty hard to resist! He is a bit hard of hearing, and he seems to have some trouble with his vision at night. But, otherwise gets around really well for his age and even was caught playing with our youngest resident dog today! :)

Stay tuned! And send Andy good vibes for his surgery!

At a Glance #10-340

Golden Retriever Born: November 2000
Male 65 lbs

Status: Deceased

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Say hello to Andy! Andy is a 10 year old, sweet as pie, male Golden Retriever. Andy was surrendered to a shelter because his family had a new baby and could no longer care for him. Andy is a fantastic senior boy! I am rapidly falling in love with him. He came to me last Saturday in the middle of the snow storm, thanks to volunteers Mike and Kris! I melted the second I first saw his adorable face... he looks like a teddy bear! You just wanna snuggle him :) But, then I got a whiff.... he was soooo smelly :( and matted, and the insides of his ears were caked in mud. The poor thing. I let him chill out for a little bit by himself (he napped), then he met the resident dogs with tail wags, such a gentleman. Then, he met our little guy Maxwell (1 1/2 yr old toddler!)... kisses for him! What a boy! Then it was bath time! I scrubbed and suds and rinsed, then brushed and cut mats... he fell asleep on the warm towels after his bath and kept napping while I brushed and trimmed him up :) I kept telling him.... "your new life starts TODAY!". That night he slept happily on a soft blanket next to our bed.

Andy visited the vet on Monday for his wellness exam and microchip. Overall, he looks great for a senior boy. He is on the thin side at 63 lbs. (could gain a few lbs), his ears look great, and his heart and lungs sound good! YAY! We are still waiting on the all important bloodwork results (but do know he is heartworm negative). He will be neutered tomorrow, and have some dental work taken care of. His teeth are in pretty rough shape, and he will need one or more extracted. The vet was a bit concerned with the condition of his coat. It is very brittle and dry feeling, and a little thin. It almost feels as if it has been burnt! It could be just poor nutrition, or there could be something else going on. We will get those blood test results back tomorrow and that should give us some answers. For now, we are feeding him a high quality food, with some fish oil added, hoping that is all we need to do to improve his skin and coat. Fingers crossed for our boy!

Andy is house trained, and he has excellent manners. Knows basic commands, and is overall just a pure joy to have around. He looooves to be loved, and eats up every single pet and tummy rub with a huge smile on his face. He thinks he is a lap dog and will try and wiggle his way into your lap... he is pretty hard to resist! He is a bit hard of hearing, and he seems to have some trouble with his vision at night. But, otherwise gets around really well for his age and even was caught playing with our youngest resident dog today! :)

Stay tuned! And send Andy good vibes for his surgery!

Updates

Monday, February 6, 2012

 

I have been trying to figure out the perfect way to start this... the perfect tribute, for the perfect dog. It turns out, there is no perfect way. Andy came to us in the middle of a snow storm, a little red, stinky ball curled up in the back of my car made his way into our homes that night as a foster dog. A few hours later as I bathed years of dirt and stink off of him, cut out baseball sized matted fur from his back and underside, and cleaned mud caked ears Andy quickly made his way into my heart and as the days went by buried himself into it so deeply he will never leave.

Turns out, Andy wasn't going anywhere :) He was ours and we were his forever.

Andy now shines on forever in our hearts. Early Saturday morning we awoke to find him unable to move. Not even chicken could get him to raise his head. (and nobody loved to eat more than Andy) We rushed him to the vet where they confirmed our worst fears. There was nothing they could do. They confirmed a splenic tumor had ruptured and our boy was slipping away before our eyes. We helped him along on his journey as my tears soaked his fur I whispered "I love you" over and over and over again as he left us.

Andy was a puppy in a senior dog body! He was silly, and naughty, and as spunky as his old body would let him be! He chewed up things that weren't his, he stole food from plates, he would welcome any chance to get into the garbage... he also was always by my side, my constant companion, was the perfect walking partner for our 2 year old son, got along with everyone and everything he ever met, he was a special, one of a kind dog. We heard Andy bark one time in the 15 months he was with us! We fostered a mom and her 10 puppies this fall and one of the pups mistook our Andy as their mom and tried to nurse from him... as we watched we thought Andy would just walk away. Instead he let out one loud "WOOF"! The first and last time we heard him bark :) He was a character and had the cutest ears I have ever seen :)

I am numb with the pain of losing Andy. The vacant spot by my feet and the empty bowl at meal time is too much to bear. It is amazing how much a dog can touch your heart and your life in such a short amount of time. Goodbye my boy. We love you, and you will live forever in our hearts. Run Free! (and tell Chippy hi)

All our love,
Christy, Joe, Maxell and your sisters :)

 

Saturday, February 12, 2011

It is official. Paperwork and the check are in the mail. (It only took so long because FM is forgetful...)

Andy is ours, and we are his, forever. :)

Andy has been sweet from the moment I first met him. He did take a little while to trust and feel comfortable here. He came here with the sad eyes of a dog who was being bounced around again in his life, I know he felt like he was going to be given up on yet again. I know he wondered, how long am I going to be here? He hung his head low and just sort of took part in our lives with no sparkle in his eyes. It made me sad, but I just kept loving him, we kept including him on everything we did "come on Andy, let's go upstairs and go to bed!" and "come on Andy let's get a chew bone" and "come on Andy let's go for a car ride!" just the normal everyday stuff... but we kind of had to make him come do those things. He would have been content to just lay there, alone. I think he was used to being left behind, left out, and lonely.

His broken spirit wasn't something I talked about much in his updates because two things... I chose to focus on all the positive things about him and focus on the happiness that was his new life.... AND that was before I saw the dog that Andy has become! The dog that knows he is home :) He is my shadow, he knows he is part of this family, he participates with a pep in his step and a constant wagging tail! We don't have to ask him to come along anymore! Andy has a sparkle back in his eyes, and we have him.

Sometimes fostering turns into forever. It is hard to describe the feeling of KNOWING that this dog wasn't going anywhere. He chews up crayons (and lots of other stuff!), he thinks every toy in the house is for him, he sometimes can't "hold it" and we have to clean up after him.... but he loves us. We love him. He's perfect to us, and that is why he's ours forever. Thanks RAGOM! :) :) :)

Sunday, January 9, 2011

Happy New Year from Andy!! Andy had a great holiday! He got some of his favorite things.... stuffed toys and good chew bones :) AND... a house full of kids and adults on NYE to pet him :) and as a bonus... we were doggie sitting my mom and dad's senior gal Riley and they became fast friends! Too cute!

Andy has gained about 5 lbs. and is now very near his perfect weight! This is great news. We are lucky because Andy loves to eat... so the increase in his food has done the trick. His coat is still in pretty poor shape, so we have added some salmon oil to his food along with his supplement, so we will see if that helps. He has been a little more itchy lately too... so this can only help. If he seems to get uncomfortable with the itchy skin I will get him back into the vet. We are working on building some muscle on him though... he doesn't have much in his legs. The vet thinks he did a lot of laying around and did not have much exercise at all in his previous life. It is hard not to think about what his life was like before RAGOM. Andy is such a loving, perfect gentleman that he was loved and taught that people are good at one point in his life. Which is great! But the condition he was in when he came to me, tells me he was neglected and forgotten about for a while before he was dropped off at the shelter. It breaks my heart. BUT, I have to remember... that was his past! He's a RAGOM boy, and he is guaranteed to have only the best for the rest of his golden years. YAY RAGOM!

Andy is easy going, happy, and sweet as can be! He is most often curled up at my feet :) If you sit on the floor he is ALL OVER you .... this boy loves to be loved. His favorite thing is people! Big or small! He doesn't care! Check out the pics of him coloring with our little guy Max! Too cute!

Andy will be attending the RAGOM Petco event in Stillwater on Saturday 1/15! We will be there from 11-1 pm, and maybe later. Come out and meet this sweetie pie! He'll be waiting to give you the paw, he'll melt your heart, I promise.

Friday, December 24, 2010

Merry Christmas to the Golden Seniors and their fosters! Merry Christmas to the Senior Goldens and their fosters from Anonymous

Monday, December 20, 2010

I realized it has been a little while since I have sent in an update on Andy boy!! Sorry Andy fans! I think it is because he is such an easy boy to have around... he just feels like part of the family :) THANK YOU sooo much to the person that gave Andy and the other senior RAGOM dogs the holiday tokens :) What a wonderful gift to give these sweet dogs. We appreciate your donation very much.

He is doing very well. He loves the snow, and when he has the chance will leap through it like a puppy! Andy loves to go for walks and is great on a leash. He prances and smiles and takes little bites of snow along the way :) He likes to snuggle, but can't jump up onto the couch... so in order to get a super duper Andy snuggle we have to boost him up! The photo shows Andy on the couch with foster mom... he laid on top of me and fell asleep! Good time of year to have a buddy like Anders to keep me warm :)

Andy does like to chew on plastic toys! (kid toys that is!). He doesn't tear up stuffed toys at all.... but hard plastic, he likes to chew. I have been trying to give him more things to chew on to satisfy this need for him, and trying to do a better job of picking up after our son Maxwell :) Andy also is hard of hearing. I have a hard time knowing how much he actually can hear, but he responds more to claps and whistles... or a raised voice. When he is out in the yard and I call him he doesn't come, but as soon as he sees me waving at him and tapping on my knees he comes running!

Andy could fit into almost any home. I will require that he goes to a home with a physical fence. Because he is hard of hearing (and possibly could become completely deaf as the years go on) a fence is required for his safety. Otherwise, he gets along with all people and other animals (he met a cat at the groomer and wagged his tail). He doesn't guard his food or toys, doesn't bark at all, takes treats gently and doesn't even drool or make a mess when he drinks water! He is healthy and gets around very well for an older guy. He loves his walks almost as much as he loves his naps! About as GOLDEN as they come :)

As much as I love Andy he is ready to find his forever home. Sharing your home with a sweet senior dog is something you will NEVER regret. You will be loved by a devoted companion, you will learn a love like no other! Until he finds that family, I will keep on loving my boy and soaking up all that he gives back. Lucky me :)

Monday, November 29, 2010

Andy is doing just great! He had his neuter and tooth extraction surgery and came through with flying colors! He was soooo sleepy and out of it when he came home that he needed to be carried every where.... his feet just collapsed underneath him! But, once I got him in the house he started to perk up a bit and then even ate a meal, hand fed by foster mom of softened dog food :) Good boy :) He was his normal self the next morning and his incision is healing just fine. The best news is that Andy's blood work came back looking pretty darn good for a senior boy! His thyroid level was borderline low. However, upon further testing it was determined that there is nothing going on that needs to be treated at the moment. The vet did say there are many different things that can cause a low thyroid level... some serious, some as simple as diet, etc. So... since he is giving us no indication that anything is wrong and all his other blood work looks good. The doc says he is healthy old boy! :)

We are working on the condition of his coat, and on putting a few pounds on him. I can't wait to see his coat soft and silky, and not to feel so much spine and ribs when I hug my sweet boy! He eats well and is enjoys his supplements so hopefully we will start to see some improvements in no time at all!

Andy doesn't have any problem getting around. He looooves to go for walks! He has no problem with stairs, and gets up just fine after lying down. He doesn't however "jump up", like onto the couch or into the car... he needs a boost. He loves to play with toys and will carry just about any toy around in his mouth and never do it any harm. The only toy he likes to tear up are plastic balls (similar to the type you find in a ball pit), and those aren't dog toys, those are Maxwell's toys... so... we have been keeping those off the floor! It was so funny last night Maxwell (our 20 month old son) was drinking out of a plastic water bottle which was about half full (he HAD to do it himself ;) ) anyway... Andy walked by and Max held it out towards him and Andy grabbed it in his mouth and happily trotted around the kitchen, and through the dining room with the bottle spilling it's contents along the way!

Andy is just a sweet and gentle boy who loves EVERYONE and everything he encounters. He is easy to foster, and very, very easy to love. Contact your placement advisor to learn more about my crush :) He's a keeper!