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.