It wasn’t long after Daisy left her physical body that my husband and I started talking about adopting another yellow lab. It wasn’t to replace her; Daisy is irreplaceable, as all our pets are. Many of you know how heartbroken I’ve been and how much love I have for her. However, because my husband and I are both retired, we have lots of time, energy, and the love to give to another sweet dog. So we went looking—online.

Sunny was originally in a pound, having been turned in as a stray. No one claimed her, which is unbelievable to me, but I’m told it happens a lot. A rescue group took her and found a foster home for her. She was there several weeks because not many people want to adopt an older dog. (The vet guessed her to be 8 with the spirit and energy of a 3 yr old.) Who knows? Perhaps Sunny was just waiting for us to come get her. As you know if you’ve read my blog about Daisy, I adopted her when she was 10, so Sunny was the general age we were looking for. We found Sunny on Craig’s List where the rescue organization had the posting. The organization named her Sunny, and she seems to know it so we decided to keep it.

She’s about 99.9% yellow lab with possibly some sheltie in there. Her feet are white-ish, and there’s white at the tip of her tail. She’s a little smaller than Daisy. Because she’s a lab, she has similarities to Daisy, but she’s definitely her own dog! She has a little bit of OBD (obsessive ball disorder), but we see that as a fun trait. She’s a little bit stubborn (whereas Daisy was very mellow), but that’s OK too. Someone in her early years took the time to train her, as she knows many commands but is just a little rusty. Perhaps she hunted, for when she loses sight of the ball she tracks it and always finds it, even when it’s thrown over the roof of our cabin and ends up in the brush down by the water. She also has excellent indoor manners. In short, Sunny is a gem! It’s been interesting to notice that I don’t have that immediate bond with her that I had with Daisy, and yet I’m really enjoying her. For the first time since I had my German shepherd in 1986, I have a dog who knows how to heel, and it’s so fun to take her for walks!