Our Chewey had his 8th birthday last month and he's been with us for 4 years. He's such an important member of the household, along with Florence, our cat. We live on 4 acres and Chewey has a great space to roam. He loves keeping his eye out for deer, squirrels, turkeys and other wild life. He's never caught anything, he's more of a lopper than a runner.
He's turned into a pretty good swimmer. Every year after Labor day the Iowa City park pool opens its doors to dogs for water sports and then the next day they drain the pool - lots of Goldens and Labs retrieving tennis balls. We have a group of Golden owners at work -about 4 or 5 RAGOMers and sometimes have an outing.
Chewey has allergies and this is the reason he was put up for adoption 4 years ago - the cost. We had him tested at Iowa State University after we got him and the verdict was that he's allergic to dust mites. So we clean the house, never not enough though, and have him on some allergy meds. He gets bathed a lot and he's very patient with that especially knowing that I have carrots in my pocket. His favorite part of the bath is the "towel game" when he puts his head between my legs and I dry his ears. He loves riding in the front seat of my truck and many days, weather and temperature permitting, he rides to work with me. We walk three or four times during the day.
He's a pretty amazing animal and knows a lot of our words, emotions, etc. Patti and I love him to pieces.
One photo I am sending is a black and white of a shot I did in the studio for work. Chewey listening to our public radio station that was used on a postcard and newspaper ad.
Chewey lives to be around us. In the photo below, shot May, 2008, we were gardening at home and he fell asleep in a bed of ground cover, always aware of us though. Frequently in a situation like that Florence the cat will run in front of him to entice him to chase her up a tree. But it wasn't going to happen on this beautiful spring day in Iowa.
