Prince has continued to do well. Still peppy, happy, and nappy. He has picked up the knack of barking to let us know anything he feels we should know—like when he wants to go to bed (not alone), when he wants fresh water (he likes his water really cold), someone to lay on the floor with him, or when Momma has to come look out the front door because he ‘saw something’ and he will not stop barking till ‘I see it, too.’

Last month Prince found something under our deck and he came to the door with a mouthful of rocks and some sort of ‘yuck.’ We are uncertain what the ‘yuck’ was, but that is what he chose to eat. Thankfully he didn’t eat any rocks, which was my first concern.

Sadly though, the ‘yuck’ he ate gave him what the vet said was a concentrated case of clostridium. Prince has been on antibiotics twice and is now on another two weeks of prescription ID food along with ear drops (left ear is infected).

Thankfully he’s pooping normal again and it looks like he is on the mend. They did run a blood test for other things that may have caused the second bout of diarrhea, and that came back looking good for a dog his age.

Prince didn’t like the first brand of ID prescription dog food he was put on and let me know by looking me straight in the eyes with a mouthful of dry kibble and spitting it back at me. It was so darn cute, yet so frustrating to get him to eat it. We ended up smashing the dry kibble and mixing it with canned ID. This second round of dry kibble is a different brand and he likes it a whole lot better.

Enjoy the picture of Prince with a leaf. He was so happy with his find that he had to bring it inside and set it on his bed. No, he didn’t eat it, but he liked lying next to it.

Prince continues to do well. He had his full wellness check-up with his vet last month and everything checked out good. Healthy, strong bones and his heart and lungs sounded good. Vet stands by his age as being 16. Some days we can see that, while other days we wonder.

I think what has us wondering is his ability to hop, jump, and move so well. We're just not used to having a Golden Retriever with such a healthy bone structure in their senior years. He still gets the puppy zoomies, which we love seeing. Just out of the blue he'll start running back and forth with wild abandon—it makes our heart sing to see him so excited and full of life.

We are keeping an eye on a lump in the front of his neck by his collar. We noticed this a while ago and so far it's still unattached to anything and seems okay.

We take Prince on drives as his wanting to go on walks is pretty much a “I don't want to.” He still gets excited when the leash comes out and we say, “Let's go for a walk” (which we do twice a day). He goes out the door, down the steps, flips around, and comes right back up the steps and into the house.

Car rides in town are his favorite thing to do. He just loves looking at the people in cars that are stopped next to us at a stop light. His favorite spot is being parked in a parking lot that is busy with people. So, we'll do that for him as a special outing.

Enjoy these recent pictures of Prince.

Prince, Foster Mom, and Foster Dad send a HUGE "Thank you!" to Jersie Girl and Bud-Bud for their donation in honor of Prince's 16th birthday. He had a wonderful day, full of all things a senior Golden loves to do. It warms our hearts to know you thought of Prince on his very special day.

Prince continues to do fine. He wakes up every morning with a talking 'grrr' to let us know it's time to get up, keeps us informed throughout the day with his playful 'grrrs' when he wants some "come lay on the floor with me" attention or just wants to play.

At night he closes out his day with a whole lot of 'grrr'ing,' letting us know it is time for his ice cream so he can go to bed. Prince is very persistent with his talking to us and it's heartwarming to hear he has a voice and feels free to express it when he wants to.

Prince didn't talk when he came into our home and I have worked with him over a year to see if he would—we now know he can and will!

This guy was so excited once the tree was set up. Prince loves presents and every gift under the tree had to get a good sniff before it was deemed 'not his' or 'was his.' I learned quickly that I needed to keep his gifts in a hiding spot! 

He found the garbage can where I had put the wrapper for his Kong ball when I wrapped it. Prince carried it around making me feel so guilty. All I could think was "Foster Mom will only let me have the wrapper and not the ball"!

Prince isn't a Golden that likes playing in the snow. In fact, he doesn't like to walk in snow that covers his feet. We were surprised when he actually walked into the deeper snow to check on Foster Dad. Of course, after making sure Foster Dad was okay, he then wanted his mitten. We always carry spares for him when outside.

Here are some of the Christmas pictures I took of Prince. Enjoy!

Prince is doing well and is 100% back to his normal self after going to the sitter. It took a little while to get there when it came to his "sharing vs not sharing", but he made it. We take him on car rides, but he needs both of us with him on the ride or he will whine. This guy likes his pack together.

Prince has started to walk a little further on his morning, afternoon and evening walks. Lots of sniffies when the ground is wet and the leaves have fallen. He has started picking up the squirrel stashes he finds hidden in the leaves.

Of course, he has to bring those things into the house and take them to his bed. It's a circle of him bringing the partially chewed pine cones inside and we returning them outside, only to have him bring them in again! 

Here are some photos of Prince helping us rake the leaves and clean up the garden. He is such a good helper. Enjoy!

Prince is doing well, but his age is finally starting to show. His jump isn't as high and his energy level is lower and he tires more quickly.

But he still enjoys looking out our front door all day, needing to bark at anyone who is passing by. All barks need to be acknowledged by a human checking on what it was he saw and then petting him, telling him "it is okay." He gets so excited and happy that he was the mighty protector. 

This year Prince and the rabbits in our yard have an understanding. They will sit and let him get close to them, then hop slowly away so he can think he has a chance of catching them. Prince has fun and they aren't afraid of him. Works for them both. 

His requirements for his forever home have not changed. He is a wonderful sweet boy, but he does get grumpy growly at times and one needs to be accepting of this, as this will not change. 

Prince has been a great supervisor of yard work this summer and loves doing clean up. Enjoy the pictures!

Prince's tooth extraction and teeth cleaning went well. They removed the tooth that we knew was bothering him and also a little tooth that needed to come out. One tooth did have a small chip on it, but it was felt that tooth would not be a problem and they left that tooth in. They did stitch the opening where the larger tooth was. Those stitches will dissolve on their own.

Prince received the VIP treatment while there. They gave him a room in the surgical area to stay in prior to surgery and after surgery. Reason for this is because Prince does not do well in confined areas or kennels—his anxiety will increase and he will urinate a lot.

The tooth fairy came! Yes Prince requested that any teeth that were removed to be kept so he could leave them for the tooth fairy. He was happy when the tooth fairy brought him “Gator the Alligator.” They did give him a stuffed hedgehog to hold onto while there (he wanted it instead of his ball) and he came home with that also.

He came home feeling punk and that continued into the next day. With older dogs that is expected as it takes longer for the anesthesia and medications to wear off. All this time Prince held onto either his gator or hedgehog and wanted to be close to us. It reminded me of a child who holds onto their blanket and just wants to snuggle. By day three he was his normal self again.

Prince loved his soft diet of canned food, which he received for a few days. Once transitioned over to moistened kibble and canned he was not a happy boy. Now he is on his normal meal of dry kibble and a scoop of canned for enticement to eat and he's a happy boy! Now transitioned over to his normal diet, Prince enjoyed some very small pieces of steak.

All restrictions were off on the 28th and Prince can have his usual weekly bully stick. We know he's been waiting because every time we go to the freezer or rustle a plastic bag, he thinks he will be getting his bully stick.

Prince continues to be 'Prince' - lazy some days and full of spunk the next. He certainly knows how to conserve his energy for what he wants to do. In the evenings or when he wants something he has become very vocal and will talk to us. Usually he wants a spoonful of ice cream (in the evenings) or someone to lay by him. 

He went to the vet for a recheck on his lymph node and it is still not going down, but not getting bigger, which is good. The other lump was aspirated because it was close to a lymph node and came back as a fatty type tumor that is benign. At this time we were told to keep an eye on both lumps for changes. 

We are noticing his eating habits are changing. Dry food is no longer as yummy as he thought it was when he first arrived to our home. We now add some prescription canned food to his dry kibble. Not much - just a little spoonful and mix it up.

In the morning he isn't very hungry and will only take a few bites. We leave his food out and by noon he will have eaten all his food. Supper time is a whole different story, with Prince still getting excited and dancing for his food. 

Prince, along with his Foster Mom and Foster Dad, send a big "Thank you" to Karla E., Julie and Pete, and his anonymous donors. We thank you for helping pay for Prince's care while in his foster home and for thinking about him. Sorry we couldn't have been there to meet all of you, but Goldzilla would have been too much commotion for Prince. I heard it was a wonderful success—we thank you again for thinking of Prince! 

Prince still loves to steal clothing. He has even gotten sneaky and will take dirty clothes that are on the laundry room floor vs out of his basket of clothing in the laundry room.

If he's in a really feisty mood he'll try to sneak clothes that I'm folding to put away. I will accidentally drop something on the floor so he can sneak away with it and take it to his bed. Always have to chuckle while watching him slyly back away with his treasure—he is so cute! 

I cleaned out the pantry on a rainy day and Prince had to check it out. Since there was nothing he could take in the pantry, he picked up a hammer I had left on the floor and ran to his bed. He does like to pick up the craziest things—objects you would think an older dog wouldn't pick up.

He only does this if we are working on something, things like screws or any item we are using. He did pick up a screw one day while we were working on something and he gently laid it on his bed—thankfully! I was so worried he would swallow it as I followed him to his bed. Because Prince does this, we have a bucket to keep things in while we're working. 

Going to the vet is very stressful for Prince. He's a smart boy and knows the route we take to get there and will whine. This last time we went to the vet he didn't whine, jumped out of the car (usually takes some coaxing to get him out), and walked into the vet clinic like he didn't know he was there. The vet feels that when a dog forgets something he or she has feared, that is a sign of dementia showing up.

I have mentioned before that we have seen moments of that "lost look or lost as to where to go or what to do," but they haven't happened often. When they do happen it lasts for a few days and then he's better. When Prince has these days we take the days a lot slower so not to confuse him more. This seems to help. On good days he can be spunky and puppy-like, but most days he'd rather just lay and look out the door. 

Prince is waiting for my help in getting a tennis ball out from under the deck. Foster Dad will have to do that when he gets home, as some of the deck boards will need to be removed to get the ball. He can be such a patient boy.

W​e are still taking Prince in for a deep ear cleaning every month and at his last visit the vet tech said Prince did WONDERFUL! He didn't show any stress (drooling, etc.) while having his ears cleaned. YAY!! We still do quick cleanings every other day at home and drops when needed. Poor guy has those yucky ears that some Goldens are known to have.

​I have noticed in the past few weeks that Prince gets somewhat confused doing certain things. I don't know if it is because he may be sleepy during those moments, stressed from outside noises, or we are seeing the first signs of dementia.

Another thing that has changed in Prince is his excitement to eat in the morning. He is either an early morning spunky dog wanting to eat or he wants to lounge and not eat till later in the morning. We will keep a close eye on him and watch how things progress. 

Prince loves his short car rides, short walks, mourning doves and rabbits, if he sees them. A robin or blackbird can be on the ground and it's like "those don't warrant my attention." But if it's a mourning dove, he wants it!

In my last update, I mentioned that Prince's walks had changed. He loved his morning walks, but evening walks he really wasn't up to taking. In the past few weeks he has decided that morning walks are something he really doesn't want to do either. He loves to go through the routine of "going on a walk." 

He lets you know "hey where's my walk?" and gets excited telling us "it's time to go." We will go through the process both morning and evening of getting ourselves bundled up, his leash on, tennis ball in mouth and head out the door.

He walks the distance of our garage, goes potty and then turns around and heads back into the house. Walk is complete, he's happy and we're happy that he's happy. For a while we thought he might be thinking that is all the further we wanted to go so we tried taking him down the driveway. Nope, he just wants to go to the end of the garage and back inside.

Prince has had a visit to the vet since his last update. We have noticed his panting has increased when active. There was thought there could be a heart problem, but it was decided that Prince is probably older than we had guessed.

He could be 14 or 15 years old. Some days I can see him being close to that age (resting most of the day) and other days he is up and looking out the door all day long. What we do know is that Prince sets the pace as it should be. 

At his vet visit Prince weighed in at 83 pounds. He did lose a few pounds, which we expected because we've cut back a little on how much he's getting at each meal. We will continue to watch his weight as we don't want him to lose too much. 80 pounds, give or take a few either way is a good weight for him. Treats are not cut back. Life is short - treats are a must for him.

What hasn't changed is Prince still goes to the vet for ear cleanings once a month and sometimes twice a month. If you're interested in Prince, you will need to budget for these visits along with his prescription dog food. Prince will decide if he will allow you to put drops in his ears - he will lift his lip, show some teeth and give a growl.

Prince's ears will always be a problem for him. His left ear fills up quickly with wax and we want him to be able to hear and not have any nasty ear infections.

The lifting of lip, showing of teeth and giving a growl can also happen when brushing him. There is one brush he allows me to use. I can get a short period of brushing done till he says 'no more brushing'. He does not like brushing by his rear end, no feather brushing for him. He just doesn't like it and we accept that. 

There are many things we can do now that Prince doesn't feel he needs to get upset about. He's made great strides in trusting us, but that took a long time (months). One needs to know that Prince sets the rules and we follow and listen to what he is telling us. 

On to the good stuff :-) Prince had a wonderful Christmas. He loves presents!! Now he thinks all bags or boxes with paper are gifts to him. Christmas brought him toys, large Kong balls, bully sticks and yes old clothes. Prince loves his stash of clothes. I believe his favorite Christmas presents were the old t-shirts his Foster Brother gave him. 

Prince is doing better with his itchy ears and feet, but he is still itching. Even though he allows us to do a quick ear cleaning, he does need a full cleaning to keep them healthy, which means a vet visit once every month or so.

He has gained more weight and is up to 79 pounds. The vet has decided to change Prince over to a corn free/less ingredient food in hopes it helps his itching and his ears. He is now on prescription Royal Canin Potato and Duck. 

Winter is Prince's favorite season. He instantly turned into a dawdler when outside, loves to explore and his prey drive increased. He caught a bird and was one happy bird dog!

When Prince dropped the bird from his mouth, the bird was still alive and Prince snuggled up next to it. I was able to give the bird its freedom outside. Happy dog, very happy bird and very happy Foster Mom!

Prince with the bird in his mouth and snuggling with the bird. 

Prince with his laundry stash. One pooped out dog after many trips up and down the stairs to gather his special 'prizes' from the basement.

​​Prince's perfect forever home:

• No other dogs living in the home. He's afraid of them and wants to be a distance away from them. Prince will become agitated when he sees a dog coming in his direction while out on his walks. 
• Family who is home more than not, works part time, retired or works from home.
• Can provide for his prescription dog food and ear/allergy medications. Also able to take him to the vet for nail clippings and monthly ear cleanings.
• Understanding and patient with him, knowing it will take a long time for Prince to learn to trust his new family members. Well worth the wait!! He's a silly, goofy and very loving boy! His family needs to understand that Prince was hurt in some way during his years prior to coming into RAGOM. For that reason, he takes longer to trust and can get a little growly to let you know he doesn't like something. 
• Understanding and allowing him to carry clothes, towels and winter hats/mittens around the house and then lay them onto his bed. 
• Because Prince lived a very sheltered life, new places cause him stress. An understanding of this will help him learn that 'new places' are fun.
• Allowed on human bed and furniture. These are safe places for him when he's worried or concerned.
• Physical fenced yard.
• Taken on a morning and later evening walk. Prince is not a dog for long walks. A walk around the block 2 to 3 times a day is all that is needed.

Prince continues to grow in our home, loves his walks and his riding in the car has gotten so much better. He does have his quirks and in this update I'd like to talk about some of those. 

In my first entry on Prince's webpage I mentioned that we (RAGOM and Foster) didn't know what his life was like prior to coming into RAGOM. We do know what his living conditions were like from the wonderful person who found him gated off in a room and called RAGOM. In that room he went potty and poop which tells us he was not let outside to do his duties. He also ate and slept in that room.

At night he was sent outside to run away. In knowing this, it lets us know why Prince prefers the safety of indoors. Prince is an indoor dog by nature, he finds his security inside the home and loves to watch the world go by out our front door. He is great at alerting me when a human or dog walks by. Prince will give a few 'woofs' and if I don't acknowledge his 'woof' he will come and get me so I will check out what he was 'woofing' at - ha!

There are times where he does like to be outside, but it's not for a long period of time. If we're sitting on the deck, he may lay out there with us, but after a while he wants to go inside. I leave our deck door open so he can lay by the door, which he does often or he'll go lay on the living room dog bed and look out the front door. This really is a puzzle of sorts since he loved being outside when he first arrived at our home and would lay out on the deck for long periods of time. I can only assume that he found his security outside till he learned that being in our home was safe - thus he found his 'safe spot indoors again'.

We have tried to get him to sit outside with us in the front of the house, but so far this has just confused him. Since our front yard is not fenced he needs to be on a long lead and he either thinks he's going on a walk or going for a ride in the car. If we sit down he'll just pick up his leash and walk himself to the front door. Prince is a silly boy!

Prince does not resource guard his food, treats or even his tennis balls from us. When he came into our home he did guard his toys and treats were somewhat confusing to him (do I guard them or not?). Prince needed time to learn that we would never take anything from him and we spent a lot of time working on this.

Kleenex is still an issue because he knows what it is and that he loves to eat it. Only once did he do that here and he was able to pass that out the next day. Prince likes stuffed toys, may carry them, but for the most part he likes them in the special 'place he puts them'. I have two out for him so he isn't overwhelmed with needing to find a special place for many toys. I don't move them because that confuses him, but if I do have to move them Prince will want them.

He is not aggressive in wanting them knowing I'll offer them to him. He loves to play ball a few times a day. I'll roll a ball across the room and he'll run after it, bringing it back waiting for me to roll the next one. 

The 2 most important quirks I want to talk about is #1 - Being groomed, ears cleaned and #2 being startled. 

Being groomed, ears cleaned​ - He will ​raise his​ lip, show a big smile (not a happy smile) and may even growl if we try to clean his ears, brush him or do any kind of grooming on him. For this reason, Prince saw the vet tech every two weeks to have his yucky gunky ears cleaned out. Why can they do the ear cleaning and we can't - good questions and one I've asked myself many times. Only ​reasoning ​we​ all​ can come up with is that his fear of being at the vet clinic overrides his fear of having his ears cleaned.

Thankfully​ his​ type of fear​ at the vet office​ is not aggressive in nature. Instead he just lays still​, will shake some​ and allows them to do whatever is needed to be done. During this time he may submissive pee, both in the vet clinic reception area or on the vet table. Big 'Hooray for Prince' - last vet visit he did not submissive pee!!! Great improvement for him. Because we know he doesn't like to be groomed by us we have slowly worked with him so he will allow us to do a light brushing, check the ear​s​ and allow us to use a few​ long stick​ q-tips on his ears.

This is a 2 person job with one loving him up, both of us talking softly to him, tennis ball always in his mouth and one of us petting and brushing him at the same time. Sometimes it's successful and other times Prince will let us know 'not today' and we instantly stop. Many times Prince will only be partially brushed, looking beautiful on one side and messy on the other. He's okay with sporting a half brushed body and so are we. His fear always correlates with us having something in our hands​ and we want him to know our hands will never hurt him.​

Being startled - Because of age and hearing ability when his ears were really gunky, Prince could and sometimes would be startled when someone walked near him while he was resting. A few times at our home I've walked by him while he was laying down and he would let out a quick growl and put his mouth on my leg. Prince has never bitten, but while he does give a warning which we want all dogs to do, he does not give any time between the warning growl and putting his mouth on you.

When Prince does put his mouth on you it's soft, like a dog with no teeth. There is no pressure other than you can feel his mouth is on you. As soon as he does this he feels bad and wants you to pet him and love him up. He has done this at his foster sitter's home when he was excited and heading to an area where a glass had broken on the floor. The foster reached for his collar so he'd not walk on broken glass and Prince gave a quick growl with a soft mouth on the arm. Again Prince felt badly at what occurred and wanted loving. How he reacts does not scare us, his foster family, or his babysitting foster family, but because we know he will do this we are careful to not startle him.

Other than these two important quirks, Prince is the perfect boy! He is the silliest senior boy that loves people. Almost every morning our neighbor walks her Golden Retriever puppy by our house and the puppy will run to our front door and sit patiently waiting for me to come outside. No doorbell is needed, as Prince will announce when the puppy is at the door.

Prince is adoptable to the right family. We all know rescue dogs have quirks of some kind and Prince's is no different. He needs a very understanding family, one that is home most of the time and one that is able to provide loads of love, security, time for him to get to know you, trust you and your home, his special special prescription dog food and accepting of who he is because of his mystery past.

On the medical side - Prince has gained more weight. He's now up to #74 and the vet feels this is a great weight for him. All his many short walks have really helped add muscle and muscle tone. Short walks are just around our block. We did run into a problem with getting his prescription food from the vet clinic and had to switch his food for a while. That didn't sit well with his tummy, so we have had to special order larger bags of his food. Locally his prescription food has been hard to get in. Hopefully that will be remedied soon.

Now the most awesome news about this senior boy ---- Prince's ears are all cleared up and he can hear! I knew he could hear, but it was definitely muffled A LOT. Every summer they test the tornado sirens (you know how loud those are) and each month Prince would either sleep though the testing of the sirens or if he was awake he'd not notice them going off.

This month changed all that - he heard them and responded back. Here is a video of him responding back. A 'BIG THANK-YOU' to all the wonderful people who have donated to RAGOM. It's taken many trips to the vet clinic to have his ears cleaned, medication, prescription dog food, and medication that is 'use as needed' for his ears to get him to where he is today - healthy. Prince's ear cleanings will continue at the vet clinic on a monthly basis so he can maintain healthy ears. It was your donation that gave RAGOM the ability to provide for Prince's medical needs so he can now hear the world around him!! Thank you!!