From Buddy's forever family...

We get such a kick out of reading all of the updates, that we finally had to send in one of our own.

We adopted Buddy in February 2007 when he was almost 6 years old. Buddy had been adopted from RAGOM as a puppy to another family, and that family returned him to RAGOM when the owner could no longer care for him due to her own health issues. We would like to sincerely thank her for making that difficult decision that ultimately brought him into our lives. It was clear from the helpful notes and medical records provided by the owner that Buddy was loved and well cared for by his first family.

We have been enjoying our excellent adventure getting to know Buddy's personality and quirks. He does not know how to retrieve and does not seem interested in learning. He will play with his toys by throwing them up in the air to himself. For the first month at our house, he refused to walk on the tile or hardware floors. We invested a small fortune in throw-rugs so that he could make it from one end of the house to the other without freezing up and dropping to the floor like a dead weight. Gradually, we removed one rug at a time until there were none. After the last rug was taken away, Buddy stood in our carpeted dining room and howled for about 15 minutes before he finally realized he preferred to be with us rather than by himself in the dining room. We have had no issues with the floors since then!

Buddy has seamlessly fit into our lives with very little drama. He demands very little other than two walks a day, a sunny spot on the floor to fall asleep in, and to be by our side whether indoors or out. He does bark (loudly!) at people who come to the door and can be over protective at times. But, we continue to work on this with small improvements over time. He can be suspicious of male strangers but loves it when the neighborhood kids hug and pet him. He also likes to try to herd people if he thinks they are getting away from him. We are still learning about him, and we have had him for over 2 years!

We would like to thank Buddy's foster mom, Denise, for taking great care of him. And, we would like to thank RAGOM and all of the foster families for the great work that you do.

P.S. We had a dog DNA test done on Buddy. The results came back that he is mostly Miniature Schnauzer, with a little Italian Greyhound and German Shepherd thrown in. My husband thinks the test was a waste of money, but I think it is hilarious! We are happy RAGOM was not too rigid on the "Golden" part of your name.