My Golden Girl

by Christy M
(Hoschton, GA)

This is the story of my Golden and how she came to be part of our family. She will be 9 this year so she is a senior, she is a pet therapy dog who visits nursing homes, hospitals and schools for handicapped children, and she was rescued from a shelter with only 3 days left at the age of 13 months.

Georgia had been returned to the shelter twice for behavior problems. My husband,finding a few extra minutes on his lunch hour, stopped by the shelter where we had recently adopted our border collie. When he walked by Georgia's pen, she reached out and grabbed his leg. That day she became the most wonderful part of our family.

I am certain when people talk about the unconditional love and loyalty a dog provides, they are talking about my Golden girl. She has comforted us through the loss of several family members and three dogs. She has trained the three young ones we have now.

She has moved all over the country with us and been there through good times and bad. She's an amazing therapy dog. We love her so much that when we decided to purchase a home and settle in Georgia, we bought one with an in-ground pool because our girl loves to swim and water exercise is great for her hips.

As far as funny stories...we had Georgia for about two weeks and she was never a problem until one night...my husband and I both left the house for a couple of hours. When I returned she had literally trashed my house!


She had torn apart a plastic pot that was home to a recently watered palm tree and strewn the mud and tree pieces all up and down the walls, carpet, furniture--it was everywhere and there was no doubt who did it! From that day forward, she has been a perfect dog.

My girl also has one really silly characteristic--she's a tattletale! Whenever one of the other dogs misbehaves, Georgia finds me. She whines and shakes all over until I follow her to find out what's wrong!

We are so glad that Georgia is part of our family and love the breed so much that we added a Golden Shepherd (1/2 Golden Retriever--1/2 German Shepherd) puppy to the family last December. My senior girl is busy teaching the puppy proper Golden behavior!


Nancy's note: Thanks so much, Christy, for sharing your precious Georgia with us. She's a lovely Golden Oldie!

I'm so glad Georgia claimed your husband when he visited the shelter, and that she trains the youngsters (your Golden Shepherd sounds adorable!), and is a loving therapy dog. The pool is great for old hips (and water-loving dogs!), and being a tattletale makes her truly unique! I'm glad she got palm tree demolition out of her system! She sounds like a wonderful Golden. Thanks for sharing!