This is Cookie Monster! We adopted him March 2000. His name was Cookie but because he was so wild when we first got him we thought Cookie Monster was a better name. He has settle down a lot and is a very sweet and loving dog. We all love Cookie Monster, especially our 6 year old son. He loves Cookie Monster and forgives him even though Cookie Monster has chewed up many of his toys. They are best buddies. Cookie Monster has gotten much better, especially when he has a toy of his own to carry in his mouth! We are very lucky to have such a wonderful dog.  

Andrews Family

When my husband, Tim, and I first heard of Golden Gate Labrador Retriever Rescue, we thought, what a great organization! We can get a couple of labs and help solve the problem of canine overpopulation. After all, I always preached that a rescued dog was more grateful than a purchased puppy.

I had lived with retriever breeds all of my life. My family owned a Golden Retriever for thirteen years, and, after she passed, we welcomed a chocolate Labrador Retriever into my parent’s home. Tim had also enjoyed large breed dogs during his life. After we were married, both Tim and I felt fully equip to handle two Labradors in our new home

As many remember, in September of 1999, 60+ dogs were discovered living in appalling conditions in a home in San Francisco. The sole purpose of these animals, later dubbed the Hammer dogs, were to produce pups to be sold to whomever was willing to risk owning the product of a puppy mill. When we found out about the Hammer situation, we felt compelled to help these unfortunate dogs. Two of the animals, Jenna and Gurgles, were in terrible shape. It was these dogs we decided could use a loving home.

Jenna, since renamed Lego, only had the use of three legs. Her fourth leg was rendered useless because of a torn ligament. In fact, she may have gone several months, if not years, with this painful injury because her entire body muscle mass was reshaped in order to compensate for her injured leg.

Gurgles, now known as Wheezer, had problems breathing. When I first saw this girl, she could not take a breath without an audible wheezing sound and, if she attempted to play, her tongue turned purple from the lack of oxygen. Originally it was thought that she had extensive scaring from the debarking procedure performed on the majority of the Hammer dogs. Unfortunately, as the caring vets at Davis reported, her problem was related to lung damage. Apparently, after several severe and untreated lung infections, much of her lung tissue was not viable and she had suffered permanent lung damage. In fact, she only had approximately 10% of a normal dog’s breathing capacity.

Golden Gate Labrador Retriever Rescue did not give up on these dogs. Normally, in a shelter situation, dogs with these severe medical problems would be immediately euthanized. The caring representatives, namely Don and Judy, explained the health problems to both my husband and me. Although these dogs were not typical of the healthy dogs that Golden Gate Labrador Retriever Rescue normally considers for placement, we felt that these dogs needed someone to help them after all the torture they had experienced.

Thanks to the financial assistance and emotional support from Golden Gate Labrador Retriever Rescue, we were able to take Lego to the generous folks at the office of Dr. Todderoff, who repaired her leg. He and his staff also repaired the scarring in her throat caused by the debarking procedure. She endured a twelve-week recovery and has regained use of her injured leg. After a slow conditioning program, she is now my jogging partner.

As for Wheezer, medication has helped her breathing problem tremendously. She does run and play with Lego, but she needs to stop and catch her breath every few minutes. Again, she would not be around to enjoy life if it were not for Golden Gate Labrador Retriever Rescue. Every once in a while, I notice Wheezer sleeping with her feet twitching. I often wonder if she is dreaming about running through a field, enjoying some playtime, without having to stop to catch her breath.

Both of these dogs are inspirational companions and have added so much to both our lives. Thank you, Golden Gate Labrador Retriever Rescue, for placing these precious puppies in our home.

I just wanted to tell you that my husband and I adopted a lab yesterday from Monterey Animal Shelter. We had been reading her description on the Lab Rescue website for a few days and my husband was absolutely convinced that she was the one for us. So, we both left work early yesterday to drive to Monterey to meet her and bring her home. She had been called Jezebel by the shelter, but we renamed her Anni (short for Anniversary, since we just celebrated our anniversary last week).

Thanks for the terrific job that you and other Lab Rescue volunteers do!!

E.L.

Kris & Peter

Santa Cruz, CA

2/9/2000

Thanks for the referral regarding 'buddy.' Buddy the chocolate lab is now 'Chino' -- short for Cappucino -- and doing super in his new home with us!

He is an active 1 year old boy and he's a BIG goof ball. He spends a good deal of time chasing his tail and his shadow. He went on 5 long walks in the last 2 days - he just loves his freedom. He's super with other dogs, little kids, bikes, joggers. He loves the waves at the ocean, alternately running from them and chasing them. He's smart too. He sits and lies down, heels and backs up. He stays although not quite reliably...he's working on shaking paws and retrieving. He's loves to play with us although he has a very short attention span. He bonded to us immediately. He would prefer to be within 2 inches of me at all times. But he has managed two successful 10 minute intervals by himself. He's sleeping through the night OK - about 7 hours at a stretch. And he is housebroken. He pee'd inside the first time we fed him -- I think because he was so excited to eat. But he's had no other accidents in the last 48 hours. He was doing terrible at the SPCA because he's easily over stimulated - but so far he's been pretty darn mellow since we brought him home. The only things that set him off balking like a maniac are moving shadows on the ceiling at night, and when I put my electric toothbrush in my mouth. :-)

He's the perfect dog for us. We're all in love. Thanks for letting us know about him.

M.E. of Santa Cruz

These two opposites love each other and often groom one another, which  is very touching to watch. My hope is that we will be able to adopt  more sweet dogs through your wonderful program. Keep it up.

C.M. (1/26/99)

Thank you for the wonderful work you are doing. Without your website, I would never have found my beautiful Tessa.

C C (10/8/98)

As part of our rescue activities we monitor the newsgroup rec.pets.dogs.rescue  and try to help people that are either trying to place or adopt a Labrador.  We are often able to assist them in finding a Lab Rescue group close to where they live. In  the event there is no Lab rescue, we try to encourage them into visiting their local animal shelter to find a Lab. I personality have rescued 14 Labs from our local shelters and placed them all with people I work with ( and they still are speaking to me!). This is what I asked Kim to do and below is an email I recently received. It put a big smile on my face, I hope it will put one on yours too....

Hi Joy and Joe,
Thanks again for the information that GGLR provided on the web page. Kirk and I have adopted the black female lab from the Oakland shelter that was posted 2 weeks ago. We were second on the waiting list - behind another person who had registered with GGLRR Lisa and I met at the shelter, talked it over, and we decided that Misha, as I call her, would be better off being our only dog than her second dog. What a happy resolution!

Misha was a bit insecure, the Velcro dog, when she arrived last week freshly spayed from the vet. Turns out she was already housetrained and crate trained, and knows sit and (once in a while) stay. She stays inside and sleeps in her crate near our room at night.

Misha is very sweet and is becoming bolder as she gets to know us. While I was away today she found doggie heaven - she pulled down and tore up the baggie with several rawhide sticks, cow hooves, bisquits and other doggie goodies. I just had to laugh when I saw the mess in the middle of the room. It looked exactly like a little kid's candy spree - taking a little bite of this, eating out the tasty middle of that. She actually looked upset when I approached the half-eaten mess to clean it up (I wonder if she was severely disciplined when her previous people discovered such things). Can a dog get sick from eating too much rawhide?

Right now she's laid out on the floor behind my chair, snoozing. We'll be starting obedience class with her in two weeks. I just want to commend you folks again for your hard work and wish you more success in bringing warm  hearts and cold noses to new homes.

Regards,

Ramona

Abbey: Was united with her new family via the Internet in November of 96. She went to live with her new family soon after the death of their other dog. Her family reported that Abbey immediately enrolled them in Miss Abbey's College of Retrieving. She has taught her new family that any leather glove left in the garden should be delivered by mouth to the kitchen. Any sock temporarily stuffed into a shoe should be found, nicely dampened and placed on the bed. A leash left in any corner should be delivered personally by Miss Abbey herself. Miss Abbey's most important lesson was to teach her new family the delight a new dog can bring even while still mourning their old dog.

Maggie: Shortly after the death of my 15 year old dog last year and the utter depression of her 13 year old buddy due to the loss of his mainstay, I contacted Lab Rescue and got an unspayed purebred black female who had been picked up stray from a Sacramento shelter and was being fostered by some young people in Davis. (A young man, whose brother was in vet school, was primary caregiver.) Maggie (initially Delilah, I believe), as she was called then and continues to be called today, came to live in my household in mid-January 1997. Nearly a year later, I'm most happy to report she's adapted to her life in San Francisco and is a true gift.

Her transition was not without its challenges. She was intrigued by the toll taker at the Bay Bridge on her first trip home to my house from where I picked her up in Oakland, and would have jumped out at the plaza to say hello if not for the quick intervention of a friend who grabbed her while I was paying the toll.

Her very first move on entering my house was to take after my three year old cat (a feisty, 15-lb. red tabby), chasing him into the garage and treeing him on the furnace ducting where he remained for most of the next month. She just wanted to check him out...he was mortified by this rambunctious, sniffing, drooling stranger...who had no idea of cat decorum. They've made their peace, often chasing through the house in a game of tag, although the cat still barely tolerates those sloppy lab kisses that frequently land on his face, striding off in a huff to groom off the doggie smell. (That would translate to "Y-E-C-H-H!!!" in cat.) In fact, unless I'm careful, they're a team on certain things...he opens the high cupboard door in which the treats are stored, pulls out the bag onto the counter for her to reach and she pulls it to the floor for a feast with my other dog.

My dog Max, formerly bereft without a canine companion, has thrived with the addition of Maggie to the household. Cool....a walking buddy...even if she does go about three times as fast as his 14+ year old legs will carry him...he trots to keep up, grooms her ears (less maintenance for me), and politely moves aside to let her into the house first on returning from a walk. In that he's nearly blind, it took him awhile to learn to avoid the "lab tail assault", which nearly always hit him square in the face as he came up behind her (blink, blink, blink) since he's only about 50 lb. to her 75.

Maggie also found great amusement in the existence of gophers in my back yard, concentrating absolutely still for as long as 20 minutes when she heard them, digging pits to unearth them, shaking them to their deaths and then bringing them in to me as tokens of her affection.

She's mastered leash training, which she was clueless on when I got her, and has become most well mannered about sitting to wait for food, dropping/leaving interesting smelling things on the street, and refraining from jumping up to greet me when I return home at night (a big deal, since I weigh only about 110 lb.). Simply put, she is (as I tell her several times a day) absolutely "the best big black dog on the whole planet." Thanks a million for her.

Continue doing good things for labs and people.

:)

Maestro was a very energetic, bordering on "what have we gotten ourselves into," when we were first introduced. She is settling into her new home incredibly well, going for a short walk in the morning, and a longer one in the evening each day. She is much better these days regarding pulling on her leash during walks. She is incredibly smart puppy, keeping her eyes on the ball during fetch, being very difficult to fool. She has been very generous, daintily bringing out our socks, etc at times to bring us presents. She does not though, go digging into, or wrestling with these clothes. We know this is our hint that it is time for play. Yes, she's training her masters too. Our next steps are to get Maestro used to the other dogs, cats, goats, llamas, emus, peacocks, horses, geese, ducks (you get the picture) in the neighborhood, and to work towards getting a "Good Citizenship Certificate."

We thank you all at GGLRR,
P & A M