A Letter From the President

January 2023

Dear Golden Family,

As I look back at the past year, I am so proud of all of the members of my Golden family. Last year I wrote about how proud I am to be the President of Long Island Golden Retriever Rescue. The phone conversations I have with people; people wanting to adopt and people who need to surrender their dogs. They let me know that we are respected as a group with high standards. When I speak to our adopters they often say that the dog they adopted from us is the "best dog on earth". I never argue with that statement - because what can be a better a response than that. Each of our adopted dogs feels like they are the best dog on earth. I am grateful that you all feel that way about your wonderful Golden.

Sometimes when I am walking my dogs, my mind wanders back to dogs that LIGRR has placed in the past 20+ years. I'd like to share some of these stories. Some of you may remember these dogs and some of you may actually live with these dogs.

Recently, I was thinking about holiday miracles and a dog came to mind. A young female came into rescue; the owner said that she had a bad cold. We took her to our vet right away. They said that she had pneumonia and needed a specialist. She was off to the emergency vet. The first night she was put on antibiotics. The next morning I was walking into work and the vet called and said that she was not responding and might not survive. They were going to stop the antibiotics and try a new cocktail of medication. It was the last day of school before the December vacation. I said thank you to the vet, hung up and went to teach my classes. At the end of the school day as I was leaving to go home the rescue phone rang. Great news, she was responding to the medication and they were confident that she would live. Happy ending and the emergency vet and his wife chose to adopt her. I had a very good vacation knowing that she would be someone's best dog.

Eighteen years ago we were called by a local municipal shelter. We were asked if we would take a very old dog. Of course we said "yes" and went to see him. He was lying almost lifelessly on the floor of the run. By law, the shelter had to hold him for a certain amount of time. The day his hold was up we picked him up and took him to the vet. He was so weak that he had to be moved in a wheelbarrow. The vet found nothing physically wrong. We took him to a foster home where there was a female dog and he found a renewed life. Shortly after that he went to live with a LIGRR board member and had a wonderful life. He spent the next year and a half happily running around and loving life.

Eleven and a half years ago I received a call from a pet store on Long Island. A six month old puppy was returned to the pet store because she had problems with her hind legs. I said that we would pick her up in the morning. When I got into bed I informed my husband that we were getting another dog. Thinking that she would need spinal surgery she stayed with us. After consulting with an orthopedic surgeon we decided to see what happened with her back. She never needed that surgery and she still lives with my husband and me. She was 12 years old on December 17th; she has some arthritis but can still hold her own with her Golden brothers.

Now I ask, if you got your Best Golden from LIGRR please tell us where your dog came from and why he or she is the best Golden and we will post them on our website. You can add a picture to your story please email them to ligrr@yahoo.com. As our adoptions are private, I will remove your last name before posting it on the website.

Looking forward to seeing a lot of stories.

Never Miss a Golden Opportunity.

Melanie