Snowy 11-289 [1]

-Anonymous

-Denise Anderman

 in loving memory of Duke 11-266

 Happy Holidays from anonymous

Please help me welcome sweet Snowy to the RAGOM family. Snowy is a 9 year old pure bred female white Labrador Retriever who came to us with the English Cream Golden Retrievers. Snowy's original owners died so Snowy and her friends were surrendered to various rescue groups. When we arrived to pick up the Golden Retrievers and transport a couple of white labs to another rescue group, we learned that an "extra" lab had made the trip from far western North Dakota. Since I was doing the transport along with our intake director, I offered to foster Snowy thus she became a RAGOM dog. Her surrendering owner said she had been "the family dog" and he was very sad to have to give her up. We all shed a few tears when he said his goodbyes to her and told her "mom and dad are gone now, so these nice people will find you a new family to live with."

Snowy made the long trip to Minneapolis and enjoyed a bath as soon as she arrived in the Twin Cities. In fact she jumped into the tub for her bath!! She is a very sweet, social, happy girl. Snowy is completely housebroken, not one accident and is very comfortable living in my house. She loves to sleep on the couch and sleeps in the bed with me at night. Snowy met the three resident dogs without any issue and has met several other dogs without any problems. I do think the 8 month old Golden Retriever pup I dog sit for is a bit much for her but she is fine with her and just looks at her like "slow down kid." Snowy seems to love humans but will bark at men that she does not know. I suspect she did not have much exposure to people other than her owners and their family as she spent her entire life on a 110 acre farm. She rides fine in the car, jumps right in and is not nervous or afraid. She has no issues with resource guarding from humans or dogs. She eats well and seems very appreciative of all the attention she is receiving at my house.

Snowy does not act like she is 9 years old. She keeps up fine with my 4 year old lab, Rocco and with Raven my 2 year old lab/Golden mix. She is in much better shape than my 9.5 year old female lab Jimmie and can run circles around her. Snowy loves to chase rabbits and squirrels in the back yard and flies off the deck to run after them. Snowy does not play with toys, although today she did pick up a stuffed toy that Raven was trying to destuff. She did not seem to know what to do with it once she picked it up and just took it to a dog bed and rested next to it. She does not know what a tennis ball is used for but she'll figure all of this out as she watches my resident dogs play.

Snowy visited the vet this week. She is heartworm negative and all her senior blood work is normal. Great news for Snowy!! The only thing the vet found is that her urine is not as concentrated as normal but since Snowy shows no symptoms of illness, she just recommended that it be checked in 6 months to a year. Pretty darn good for a 9 year old dog who was a breeding dog. Snowy does need to be spayed, so her days of making puppies are behind her. We'll schedule her appointment in the next week or two.

Snowy has a few requirements in her forever family. She will need to go to a home with at least one other medium to large size dog....she loves other dogs so several dogs would be fine for her. Snowy will need a home with no children under the age of 10 years and she will need a home with a fence. These are the requirements we have for dogs who have lived as breeding dogs.

Please contact your placement adviser if you are interested in Snowy. She will make a wonderful companion for a very lucky family. I'll send in another update in a few days as I learn more about Snowy but for now I have to say she is one of the sweetest dogs I've fostered so far.