Human: Ellie
Canine: Porter
Location: Minnesota
Type: Golden Retriever
Our Story:
November 3rd, 2006 was a horrible day for me. I made the extremely tough decision to end the suffering of my beloved Tanner and send him off to the rainbow bridge. Returning home to a furless home was almost more than I could bear. A few weeks later, a friend just happened to mention how a family who lived a few blocks from him had just (unintentionally) had a litter of Goldens. He found this family while searching for his young dog who was a bit unruly and had ran off after a small animal. Deuce, the unruly yet oh-so loveable one, had smelled all the dogs (we think) and wandered into their yard. Brian (my friend) followed about 15 minutes later and ended up chatting with the family and viewing the puppies (barely 2 weeks old at this point).
When Brian told me about these puppies, I had a hard time figuring out whether it was too soon to get another as I didn’t want to be disrespectful to Tanner’s legacy. My heart won over eventually though and the next weekend I drove the 3 hours to visit Brian and see the pups for myself. Macy, the mama, was fabulous and very patient as I oohed and ahhed over her brood. The family said that almost all the pups had been spoken for but there was a male left. Sounds like fate? Just wait…
As we continued to chat about dogs, ourselves, etc, the dad of the family handed me their AKC registration thinking I would want to see the history of the dog I was adopting. I skimmed over the genealogy “tree” and suddenly my eyes caught something… a name… a familiar name… could it actually be? YES! It turns out that Tanner’s brother, Mac, had sired a litter back when he was a young stud. Mac was my new puppy’s great-grandfather which means that my very own beloved Tanner, who had just passed on not even a month ago, was Porter’s Great-Uncle! How could this be? This has to be more than a coincidence, right?? How could I not believe in fate after experiencing such an unexplainable thing?
Porter healed my heart although Tanner will never be forgotten. Deuce also holds a special place in there because without him, Porter and I never would have found each other.
Oh- and Porter not only looks very much like his great uncle (no, not all Goldens look alike- adopt one and you’ll see!) but they have some of the same characteristics as well. People joke that Porter was born with an old man’s soul. Well guess what? I’ve met that old man and I think he’s pretty darn fabulous. 🙂
