Howie 11-165 [1]

Howie came to us yesterday and he is simply a wonderful 5 year-old guy, full of sweet golden love.  He is 96 pounds of loving sweetness.  Right away he was comfortable, gentle, loving and sweet with all three kids and the resident dog, Sid.  Howie is used to sleeping in a kennel in the garage, but we wouldn't have anything to do with that.  He slept in his kennel in the living room and seemed perfectly content.  He was happy to come out in the morning and shower us with love. 

His SO said that he has a strong prey drive for squirrels.  I am not sure what Golden doesn't!   We quickly saw that first hand with the  big oak trees in our yard that house quite a few.  Howie saw them right away and waited patiently for them at the base of the tree.  When they came closer he tried to catch them, but no luck.  He often just sat quietly and waited.  If we called him however he would come to us. 

Howie is up to date on his shots but has a bit of a sniffling, stuffiness in his nose that the vet will check out in a couple of days.  He hasn't been interested in eating yet, but we hope that is just nerves and he will begin to eat soon.  He is happy to watch us eat, but doesn't beg or bark. 

We always hope to have a calm first couple of days for our foster, but the kids had already planned a wedding for our resident dog and the neighbor dog, so Howie got to meet lots of dogs and kids at the dog wedding today and he did beautifully.  He played with all of them or just hung out on his own.  He has shown no signs of aggression, food guarding or guarding of his toys of any kind.  We learned that he had once gone after a porcupine so he was greeted with a hedgehog toy when he came to us.  He loves his toy and plays with it, but has not torn it apart.  He is just a gentle big hunk of love.  We will update following the vet's visit.