This is the story of how my first golden retriever puppy came into my life. Sixteen years ago today those big brown eyes came into my world and it hasn’t been the same since.

The story begins in the winter of 1991. Mom and I already had Mikey, one family furball that was “mysteriously” dropped on our doorstep a couple of years earlier. She swore NO MORE DOGS! But she couldn’t say no to temporarily housing Baby, my sister’s beagle mut mix. My sister told us she had gotten Baby spade. So when mom and I asked my sister to housesit for us when we went to Minnesota for a Christmas vacation, we didn’t have any reason to worry about Baby getting out.