On 2016-03-04 21:08:31 +0000, Ri ardo said:

On 04/03/2016 16:17, Charles Lindbergh wrote:
On Fri, 4 Mar 2016 09:55:39 +0000, Ri©ardo wrote:
On 03/03/2016 17:06, Charles Lindbergh wrote:
On Thu, 3 Mar 2016 13:56:32 +0000, Ri©ardo wrote:
On 03/03/2016 13:20, Charles Lindbergh wrote:
On Thu, 3 Mar 2016 12:32:44 +0000, Ri©ardo wrote:
On 03/03/2016 11:24, Bob (not my real pseudonym) wrote:
These things are so darned cute, you just want to go give 'em a
scratch behind the ears.


He heard that, and said "yes, please".

;-)

Is that your lab? Handsome boy.

At the moment, my vanilla lab is sleeping on my left foot and my
chocolate is sleeping on my right foot. Best
dogs I have ever been owned by.


Hi Charles,

Yes, he's a recent acquisition - eleven years old, would you believe.
He'd been a working guide dog for a blind person for nine years and was
being retired on age grounds. In fact he had worked longer than is usual.

We lost our previous dog, a German Shepherd - also a retired guide dog -
just before Christmas and a very large gap in the home needed filling.
This new boy retired on a Tuesday night and we met up with him the next
day and has been with us for just over a month now.

We've supported the UK Charity Guide Dogs for the Blind for over thirty
years, the first fifteen having been spent bringing up puppies for the
first year of their life, from which they underwent a further year's
"college" training before being teamed up with a person. Subsequently we
took on reject and retired dogs.

Our first ever pup, a yellow lab (as they're known here), failed his
exams and came back to us. He was a great mentor for the puppies in
training with us - including at one time, in the best of Labrador
traditions, showing a puppy how to get plums off the plum tree!

You can't beat a Labrador, always our first love in dogs. As you say
"the best dogs to be owned by"!

Funny, we have avocado trees and my labs have learned how to climb onto
the lower branches and swipe the ripe
ones.

They call them yellow labs here too, but some, like my Murphy, are the
color of vanilla ice cream, so calling
him yellow isn't very accurate.

Attached is a picture of my boys.


Thank you Charles, they are magnificent. Here's some pictures of
Fraser's predecessors - both of Guide Dog stock.

Jemma the Labrador departed about 18 months ago, and Rufus the Shepherd
just before Christmas from very sudden cancer of the liver! Such is life.

On the subject in hand - we've never had a bulldog!


Your monsters were all quite handsome.

Hard to think of anything in life that has generated greater serenity
than those animals which have chosen to
adopt me.


Agreed, and they get you out of the house, whatever the weather is doing!

My kids back in 1986.




--
Regards,

Savageduck

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