It's a BOY!!!!

Not quite the baby I wanted but we will take him none the less.

Ladies this is Cooper



My dad decided that he wanted another dog, so he called my Aunt who said she had a breeder friend that had Golden Retrievers and my dad bought one. His name was Emmit (name breeder gave him) and he as really shy but sweet, this was the description from the breeder, and he was the last of his litter to find a home, he was already 8 months old.
My dad didn't mind the age seeing as he was still a puppy and still within a good age for training. My aunt loaded her car up and drove him the 11 hours here to Ohio. When she pulled up to my house to drop off a piece of furniture she brought out for me I asked where Cooper was, he was on the floor in the back of her van, to petrified to move. He had gotten in the van 11 hours ago and had not budged since. He hadn't eaten, gone to the bathroom he just laid there. When my Dad walked up to get him out he had to lift this 50 lb plus dog for fear of strangling him with this leash . He was more than shy he was absolutely terrified of everything and everyone. Once we got him in to the back yard he made a bee line behind the shed, my husband and my dad worked for about 20 minutes to get him out. Once we got him in the house he hid under the table and had to be lifted everywhere. When my dad drove away that night the rest of us looked at each other and we all agreed that it was just a matter of days before my dad was asking my aunt to take him back.

Reports from my dad's house were mixed to say the least. He wouldn't come out from behind the couch, but he was getting better, He was having accidents in the house, but he was responding really well to my step mom. They started to see more of the home he had come from, now I don't personally know the breeder so this is all speculation but when we do know is he was around dogs all the time and for the last 3 months of his life he was crated outside. What we are speculating was he was hit, when ever you move to quickly towards him or raise your hand, even to pet him he either runs away with his tail between his legs or he bows his head really low trying to get away, this made bonding really hard. Wither or not they were going to keep him changed from day to day, the final consensus was yes they were going to keep him seeing as he was getting better everyday. So my Aunt went home and we went on but then last Thursday I get a voice mail from my dad.

I called him back and he had a really serious question to ask my husband and myself ...

"Do you want this dog?"

I was confused, I thought things had been going well.

I then asked what happened, thinking I didn't want a dog that had destroyed one the antiques that inhabit my dads house.

He said nothing had happened he just wasn't "in love" with this dog and that the connection wasn't there and he wasn't sure it was going to be.

I talked to my husband and he has wanted a Golden Retriever for as long as we have been together, so we talked about it and I told him that my uncle, who was in town, had offered to take him back as well, so we could try him out. He agreed.

30 minutes later my dad pulled up Cooper and all the doggie gear they had, I opened the door to see this ball of yellow hair curled up in the front seat. We finally got him out to my backyard and when he saw my little Dot his tail actually began to wag. After being there for 10 minutes he and Dot were running around and his tail was wagging. My dad said "this is the happiest I have seen him in weeks."

He followed Dot inside and we talked about Cooper and how he was given to my dad with ear mites and tapeworm. We decided right then and there that he wasn't going back to the breeder because obviously they weren't taking care of him and we would find a rescue or a new home for him. But Girls he is thriving at our house. I think all he needed was some kanine companionship and he right as rain.

We are having some issues with him eating from a bowl, we think the breeders may have just put the food on the floor of the kennel because he has no problem eating off the floor. He is under weight so our goal right now is to get him used to us, used to the house and chub him up.

He is sooooo freaking sweet, with his big brown eyes. He is starting to copy Dot and wants so badly to be up on the couch and on the bed. He has a blue comforter that he sleeps and lays on most of the day but he doesn't like to be apart from her. It is so funny to see him "try" to jump on something. If he only knew how big he really was, it would all be over. My favorite thing he does is at night he will sit up and lay his head on the bed next to mine as if he just wants to make sure I am there and I am ok. I will give him a little pat and he will lay back down.

Dot likes him about 85% of the time. She will run and play with him but when he is getting pet she looks at us like "Ok, I am ready for him to go home now." And I don't think she likes having a shadow but she will get used to it.