He's Really A Lovely Dog

So we adopted a rescued Golden Retriever at the end of last summer. Yes, we had no idea there were Golden Retrievers needing to be rescued, but there are, sadly.  At any rate, we waited 6 months to be matched to a dog the right age, temperament, and such, and the wait was well worth it.  Guinness is a 3 year old pooch who fit right into our family.

Mr. G

His foster family told us he was extremely well-behaved and appeared to have had some training in his previous life.  He was found as a stray in Chicago and they said he never barked.   He barked at me within two days of moving in.  That was pretty much how things went: we welcomed him and he picked up a number of behaviors he hadn't exhibited before.  None of them were big problems.  He barked at me when I wasn't picking up on his silent cues to help him retrieve a tennis ball under the couch and he even developed a low growl when he needed to go outside and no one was listening.  All good.

We've always had Goldens (Guinness is our fourth) and they are a wonderful breed.  They're excellent with children, smart, easily trained, and always ready to play.  One of the somewhat peculiar traits we quickly noticed Guinness brought us was that he can go to sleep at the drop of a hat anywhere.  If he's outside and done playing, he'll just lie down (on grass, the deck, or a snowdrift) and go to sleep. If there's nothing going on in the house at the moment, time for some shut-eye.  He matches our life-style perfectly.

Anyway, one of those strange traits that he began to display after he moved in, is he is absolutely fascinated by cats.  All my kids have one or more cats in their homes (in addition to dogs) and Guinness is relentless in his pursuit of felines.  He chases them and tries to figure out how he can get beyond baby-gates set up to provide cat safe-havens.  He hasn't been deterred by hissing, claws, or feline growling.  Nothing distracts him from his mission.  This dog is absolutely gentle with babies, toddlers, and older humans, but if there's a cat in the area, he is relentless.

One of my daughters recently observed him totally focused at the door (with a baby-gate) to a bedroom housing a couple of cats, even when the door was closed.  She commented that maybe we should name him Alf, after the much-beloved alien in the TV series (1986-1990) who thought cats were delicious and never understood why humans kept them as pets.  Alf was quoted once as saying "The only good cat is a stir-fried cat."  On another occasion, Alf asked the mother of the house "Yo Kate, where do you keep the casserole dishes? (Why?) The cat won't fit in the toaster."  Suffice it to say, Alf loved cats, but not the way most humans love cats.  

Our Goldens have always had numerous nicknames; they don't recognize them as names, per se, but they never seemed to mind.  For Goldens, any attention is better than being ignored.  For example, we've had an Indian name ("In The Way") for use pretty much all the time and a Jewish name ("Moe Ros" [long "O"]) for when he seems sad.  So we are now adding "Alf" to the list of authorized nicknames for Guinness. 

I'll end with another quotation from the TV show (Lucky was the Tanners' cat):

(Lucky has died and the Tanners are having a funeral for him.)

ALF : I'm reminded of a prayer he used to recite every night before going to bed : "And if I die before I wake, chicken-fry me like a steak."

ALF : Where I'm from, this is ludicrous! It's like having a funeral for a hamburger!

But he's really a lovely dog!