The Ride of our lives

Now Goldie had officially become our dog. She had registered papers and was now an official Golden Retriever :D . She was starting to settle in the house and in our lives. We decided to give our new doggie a spin, or in doggie terms a walk. So me and my lil brother one late afternoon decided that we were fit enough and Goldie well trained enough to go out of the gate.So without any adults, we put a collar and leash and set out for an adventure. The journey till the gate was a wonderful leisurely walk and our confidence was boosted that we could finally handle Goldie. What ensued once the gates opened is anybodys guess. Now Goldie was a solidly built Golden and extremely strong, and we just a couple of 8 and 12 year olds, who mind you were quite agile owing to our swimming prowess.

But we were not match for Goldie. There we were flying out of the gate, hurtling down the road. A mad barking golden running with her ears flapping in the wind and two kids flying and flapping behind her, holding on to her leash lest she should run away. And oh, the ambition of youth, we had decided to head for the hill!
And Goldie seemed to know the way. Once we reached the bottom of the hill, and looked up, we thought yay! Target achieved! Now Goldie cannot possibly pull both of us up that slope. But we didnt know Goldie that well then now did we! We started climbing up rather clambering up trying to keep holding the leash and our balance. We reached the top in like a record 7 mins! Normally it takes 12-15 mins.

Once up there we sat for a bit. Goldie was wagging at every other person. She loved people and hated dogs. So it was like bark (for every dog coming up) and wag for the people and owners. So everybody was super confused whether she like them or not. Then started the climb down. Now its difficult to balance yourself while climbing down alone. Imagine with an additional force of four paws and 40 kgs of canine strength. The hill was like one giant slide with thorns along the way!  We were down in 4 mins!
Then we didnt stop running till we finally reached home. Whew! What a sense of accomplishment we had when we reached home! We were tired happy and hungry.
When I went to sleep that night, it with a sigh of content and dreams of wind in my hair , goldie in tow and running together in meadows of green and yellow!

Goldie's Day Out

Our first adventure was getting Goldie registered. For that we had to take her to the Dog Show, where a judge would certify her to be a fine Golden Retriever. Now, Goldie came highly recommended for car rides. I am guessing what they meant was, Goldie recommends car rides.
 Anyway, we set off for the show, quite a normal family to the untrained eye. Mom was at the wheel and Goldie and us kids in the back. We didn't quite envison the entrance we would make everywhere. The sight that greeted the curious onlooker was thus:
A nice car with a lovely lady at the wheel. One beautiful golden  haired dog in the back, trying with all her might to jumpo out of the car window obviously too small for her. Two kids flying from one end of the car to the other almost falling out of the window themselves, courtesy, Goldie's frantic attempts to inform each and every person, animal, living thing on the street that we were goign somewhere. So we had a rocking car, literally, since a Golden Retriever and two kids weigh enough to make the car resemble a ship on the torrid high seas.
Thus we managed to reach the venue. Now the challenge: how do you get a willful Golden out of the car? Well, open the door and tell the kids to hold the leash one would say, right? Exactly the mistake my mom made. The door opened and whoosh!! Goldie was running full speed with two kids in tow, clinging on to the leash, hanging on for dear life. In this way, Goldie took us in and out of every car in that parking lot. In one side , out of the other, in one door, out the other, sometimes out the same in case the other door was closed.
The whole scene was like a circus show gone wrong. One merry Golden having fun running with two kids in tow( one with wild hair since dear bro had managed to pull the hairband out). A worried frantic lady(mom: poor thing) running behind trying to catch them, a few helpful people who had made the folly to volunteer to help us out, and a couple of security guards also playing catch.
Gosh! what a sight! Well, finally a quick person(who also owned Golden Retrievers :D) caught Goldies collar and voila! Goldie came to a barking halt. And thus , Goldie was shown to a judge , certified , blah blah. And then we were all bundled in the car and headed for home sweet home. An exhausted and contented family(relatively since Goldie occasionaly informed everyone of our progrees towards destination home).
Goldie's day at the show thus ended happily!

Goldie comes home...

I remember the day we brought Goldie, a very stubborn and willful golden retriever, home. One of my cousins highly recommended this dog that their neighbor had and wanted to give away to a loving family. OS there we set off, the very picture of a close knit and tight family to fetch the one thing missing from our crazy lives...an even crazier Golden.
 To the uninitiated, a bit of information about Golden Retrievers. They are lovingly called Goldens. They are very energetic, fun loving, people friendly family dogs. They love food and will do and I repeat from experience absolutely love food and will do anything for it. They have lovely soft fur in colors from white, silver to bright gold and orange. They are beautiful dogs and have a wonderful spirit.

So, back to the story. The owner told us that Goldie is very well trained and walks to the left. She will never pull the leash and loves to walk with people. So, we decided to take our lovely new pet for a short walk. Well to put a long story short, the well trained walk theory went for  a toss. We came from the 4th floor to the ground in a record six seconds. She doesn't pull on the leash..yeah right only when you walk at her speed. We covered a distance of I think 1 km, before we(meaning Goldie who had the cruise control)  finally changed course and headed back. We had no disruptions of traffic or pedestrians, since no one wanted to stand in the way of a bull dozing large golden dog with two kids in the tow.

Then we got into the car and finally came home, a very happy and yapping Goldie and a very exhausted but satisfied family...