All about the Goldies that are or have been a part of our world
Mia
Mia … what can I say about Mia ? She’s manic, fizzy, completely bonkers but also loving caring and sensitive, she is the dog you want around when you’re feeling ill or just down a bit. Mia will quietly walk up to you and if you’re sitting down she will put her head in your lap and love you unconditionally you will feel better very quickly.
Mia came into to our life about 8 years ago she was a manic 2 1/2 year old, super fit and must be the only Goldie with a ripped body, not one ounce of fat and willing to take on any challenges. Talking about challenges whilst on our trips / short holidays to Shell Island Mia would streak across the beach and lunge herself into the sea, which could be like a mill pond or be foaming and angry. Mia would tackle it all we have videos of her chasing a ball over 6 foot waves and would always bring the ball back.
Mia and Poppy shared our lives until Poppy sadly went over the Rainbow bridge in 2015, for a while Mia had us to ourselves and all was happy until….
Darcey arrived
Darcey was a few weeks old puppy and full of life, we wondered how Mia would welcome this bundle of fur and energy. We shouldn’t have worried Mia in her typical hi energy way instantly bonded with Darcey and played with her all day she never tired of the play and neither did Darcey, it was lovely to watch them play and grow together. Mia and Darcey shared everything all the adventures, I’m sure Mia taught Darcey to swim and they soon both raced each other into the surf to swim together.
At present they’ve been together for about 4 and a half years and sadly over this time Mia has got that bit older and slowed down. Darcey keeps wanting to play and is only just beginning to undertstand that her soul mate is too old to play the way they used to BUT Mia still can swim well enough to keep up with Darcey. .
We love Mia so much and she is still the manic monster when it comes to meal times. We wouldn’t have her any other way. She’s a rare manic Goldie
Darcey
Now where do I start with Darcey ? Darcey is the first puppy we’ve had since Cassie, nearly 21 years before and of course we’re 21 years older ! Well we thought after re homing a few Goldies we would have a puppy. We read up on them, researched the internet, talked lots and lots to the breeder, but we still weren’t quite ready for the ‘whirl wind’ called Darcey.
I worked from home and my husband worked nights, one week on one off, so between us we knew that she would have us there all the time.
We picked her up, from her owner and took her on a three hour journey home. She was so good, she slept in her cage nearly all the way home, with Mia our other dog keeping a watchful eye over her, from the back of the car.
We got her home and Mia took to her straight away, she would play with Darcey, very gently and would constanly clean her, they had a great bond together.
Owning a new puppy is I have to say a ‘lot’ of hard work and early mornings and lots of accidents, so hopefully you have a good mop ! but mostly lots of patience. Darcey didn’t quite do what it ‘said on the tin’ she had a mind of her own. The ‘tin’ (book) said, put her in a cage at night, get her used to it in the day time and she’ll happily go in her cage, ‘don’t give in to her, otherwise you’ll make a rod for your own back’ hmmmm, yet right ! Darcey would go in and out of her cage during the day,but never to sleep in it, then came bed time, she would howl, cry, bark, she just wanted to be with Mia, so yet we gave in and got rid of the cage…but be aware they do like to chew and Darcey loved to chew ! especially my pine dresser when we left her to go shopping !
She did get out of all this and became a beautiful, loving, caring, funny little ‘being’ that she is. This sounds really daft, but we think she talks or at least tries to talk to us. She’ll sit in front of us and just look at us, until we ask her a few questions and get it ‘right’ then we know what she wants.
Darcey loves her walks, either in the mountains or on the beach, she’s happy wherever you take her. If you take her to the beach, as we only live a few miles from it, she’ll run to the sea, splash about a bit then run back to you. Mia is getting on a bit now and doesn’t like to play with her now, but she has play dates with my Grandaughters retriever too, who is a couple of months older than Darcey, they just love each other. darcey is the lovliest dog you could of wished for, she is beautiful inside and out and loves everyone and everyone loves her. She has the most beautiful white coat as well.
I never regret having a puppy for one second, but be prepared for hard work, but goodness, it’s worth it, totally worth it !
Darceys vital stats
Darcey is Kennel Club registered as is her Sire and Dam. All of Darceys Pups will also be KC registered
Birth Date : 30th May 2017
Sire: Thornywait Diamond Geezer
Dam: Sansue Golden Fortune For Cawdowen
Darceys Health Checks
Hip Score 3 + 3 = 6
Elbow Score 0 + 0 = 0
Eye Score Unaffected
Ellie
Ellie was lovely, if not a little over weight, but she was really naughty ! She loved to roll in any bit of poo she could find, in fact I think she would search it out lol. Ellie loved laying in the muddiest puddles ever, but take her to the beach, she would run all the way to the sea from the sand dunes and just lay at the waters edge to get her tummy wet, you would think she wasn’t a retriever as she would not swim, even if we tried to coax her/drag her in, she’d just swim back to shore, everyone used to laugh. Another of her lovely tricks was to empty the kitchen bin out. She did this to my daughter, when she was looking after her, she emptied her bin and then put it all on her bed, whilst she was out, then when my daughter came home and shouted at her, Ellie then, threw up all over my daughters feet and wee’d …I think my daughter wasn’t very amused lol.
That being said Ellie was such a lovely girl, she followed us all around the house and just lay at our feet when we watched the tele in the evening. We moved to Sweden whilst we had Ellie, luckily we could take her with us because of the ‘pet passport’ she loved it there, we lived in a house in the middle of a forest and every morning she’d take herself off into the forest for a walk and come back and sit on the verandah waiting for us to open the door and let her in. She was so lovely and gentle and loved our Granchildren and they loved her too. Sadly Ellie died whilst we were in Sweden, of nose cancer, it was so sad and took us at least 4 years before we coud bring ourselves to have another dog, of course it had to be a retreiver !
Cassie
Steve (my husband) and I (Carol) moved to france in 1995. We lived in Paris for 9 months then bought our own house about 50 miles outside of Paris, with the intention of settling there for good. We then bought a Golden retriever puppy from the UK that my sister in law looked after, until she was allowed over to France. Once she’d had all her relevant rabies injections etc we travelled via the Euro tunnel and took ‘Cassie’ to her new home in France.
Cassie was quite a good traveller and quitetly sat in the back of our van, being let out for exercise and toilet breaks every so often. Once home we got home we fed her and whoops forgot what my sisiter in law had told…let her out straight after being fed ! So i then cleaned up the huge poo she’d left me, right beside my bed, I didn’t forget a second time !
Cassie settled in very well and all the children in the Village used to come and see her and play with her. They even bought her a ‘present’ a little black kitten as a playmate, they named her ‘le chat’ (Cat) Cassie and le chat loved each other and played so happily for hours in the garden, Le chat taunting Cassie constantly then running and hiding from her, through holes in the dependance (huge barn) that only Le chat could get into, then she would taunt Cassie through the holes with her paws…then run out and play would start all over again.
Cassie and I would spend hours playing in the huge garden, then going for walks. She was such a lovey dog, our first experience of a ‘Goldie’ she loved everyone. Of course being a ‘Goldie’ she was very naughty too. Our garden had two parts to it an enclosed part with a six foot wall around it, with a gate to what we called ‘the field’. One day we went to the shops and thought as it was a lovely day we’d leave her in the walled garden, with plenty of water of course ! when we came back a couple of hours later we were met by the neighbour, with Cassie in tow, the little so and so had dug a huge hole under the gate got through and into the field then into next doors garden to play with their little ‘westie’ dog, oh yes and to have a chomp on the owners shoes, that were her gardening shoes and she’d left them outside…ooopps…luckily the lovely lady had a sence of humour and just laughed.
Well that was our introduction, to this really fabulous breed of ‘Goldies’ sadly we had to leave Cassie and Le chat behind with our lovely friends, who used to look after them both when we went back to the UK for family visits, when Steve’s job moved, as in those days ther was no pet passports. I felt like my heart would break, it was one of the saddest things I have had to do. We didn’t have another pet until about 8 years later and that’s when my daughter found ‘Ellie’ for us, a lovely 4 year old Goldie in need of a new home as her owner had died.