Chester #01-139

Chester is an eight and a half year old male, with a very sweet temperament.  He is in good health, although he joined RAGOM smelling like a swamp and with MANY wood ticks!  After a bath, and wood tick search (which he was very patient with), he was feeling much better! 

UPDATES:

6/18/01:  Chester has taken on a new responsibility around our house - that of protector to our cat Samson.  A new foster dog has come to stay with us, who probably has not experienced cats in her previous life.  She is not aggressive with the cat, just curious and likes to bark at him.  The attention is not completely welcome by Samson, therefore Chester and Suzi (our Westie) have taken it upon themselves to jump in and defend Samson by getting between them when it happens.  It is all very cute.  Overall, all of the animals are getting along quite well.  Chester spent another weekend at the cabin, swimming and chasing chipmunks with the gang.  He continues to love car rides and jumps up, running to the door or car any time he is asked if he wants to go for a car ride.  Chester is in great shape, even though he has not been weighed again, we are certain he has dropped some weight.  Daily walks and all that exercise they get up north is showing up positively on him. 

6/13/01:  Chester continues to prosper in his foster home.  His new trick for the week was to learn how to fetch the retrieving dummy from the boat AND get back in on the steps.  Our golden has always been able to climb in with the only help from us being our keeping our hand behind her neck to help her with her balance.  As soon as Chester saw that, he wanted to try.  After a few tentative tries he was doing quite well.  Chester is a pleasure to have around.  He loves human contact, as well as that of his new cat and dog friends.  He does well with other goldens, smaller dogs and cats.

6/4/01:  Much to Chester's dismay, as well as our dogs, we did not make it to the cabin this weekend.  A birthday party and yard work at home kept us in town, but also gave Chester some new opportunities.  In preparation for the birthday party, all dogs got baths.  Chester is an absolute doll while being bathed.  He just laid down in the tub and let the bathing happen - I think he really enjoyed himself.   The whole then crowd went to my ten year old nephew's birthday party on Saturday.  Basically an afternoon at my sister's with her 10 and 14 year old children, plus their border collie.  Chester loved playing with the kids, retrieving balls and running in their big backyard.  Then on Sunday, it was yard work at home, giving the neighborhood kids the opportunity to converge on our yard to play with the dogs.  Our six year old neighbor boy, in particular, loves to spend a great deal of time in our yard since allergies keep his family from having dogs of their own.  He has adopted ours, and generally any fosters we have.  Chester did wonderfully with all of the kids and really enjoyed the pets, hugs, kisses, etc. Chester seems to do well in every situation we have introduced him to.  Someone will be VERY lucky to make him a part of their family!

6/1/01:  Chester continues to be the perfect gentlemen for his foster family.  He loves to be with us, and if we aren't available, he keeps something of ours close by.  As I work on the computer, Chester is my foot rest.  He doesn't tend to be a pest, he just wants to be right with you.  Chester has proven to be VERY smart. I had left my tennis on the steps since they were dirty from cutting grass.  Of course one of them found its way outside.  We asked Chester where the shoe was and told him to go get it, when we went to the back door Chester was bringing the shoe back to us.  What a smart boy. 

5/24/01:  Chester continues to be very well adjusted in our home.  Again this weekend we traveled to our cabin for a day and a half and Chester was eager to get into the lake.  He went right from the car to the lake!  And, seemed to be right at home, as if he had been doing this all his life.  He loves to retrieve - almost anything thrown for him - on land or in the water.  Other interests of Chester's are sticks (the bigger the better - that can be quite the prize!), balls, toys and chew bones.  Chester loves attention, and human contact.  He is our shadow around the house, needing to move from room to room as we do.  Chester is eight and a half years old, but with the energy and spirit of a young dog.  He is very sweet and will be a wonderful companion for the lucky family who adopts him!  He is ready to move to his forever home (even though it will be hard for us to give this sweetie up!).

5/20/01:  This past week was a very full one for Chester and his foster family.  Last weekend we went to our family cabin for a three day weekend, which Chester loved.  When it comes to swimming, boating, retrieving sticks, you name it we did it all and Chester was in heaven.  As we noted to ourselves, Chester doesn't realize he's eight and a half years old!!  If there were things to do, he wasn't going to stop.  The resting up was reserved for the trip back to the cities, and the next day.  Chester has definitely had some training in his past.  When it comes to healing on the leash, or responding to commands when playing off leash at the cabin, he responds well.  Chester continues to get along well with our pets.  Even the cat is no longer much of a novelty for him.  His only issue being the anxiety he had with being crated.  We tried baby gates as well, but both things seem to bother him.  Since we don't want him to injure himself trying escape while we are gone, we have left him uncrated on the main level of our house.  Chester does not disturb a thing!  Other than holding on to one of our shoes (or a dirty sock - yuk!), but not chewing it, he just finds a rug to sleep on and is perfectly fine until we get home.  This works out much better than trying to figure out how a 94 pound golden is going to escape from a crate and potentially hurt himself.  Chester is a very happy, loving dog, who is ready for a home to call his own!  

5/13/01:  Chester has been with us for one week now, and he is a sweetheart!  On Monday he made the trip to the vet, having a complete physical and all his vaccinations.  For not having been to the vet in a VERY long time, he came out with a clean bill of health.  Yeah!  He did weigh in at 94.7 lbs, though.  Somewhat overweight!  Eating good food and daily walks should help that, however.  Chester is a mellow dog, that doesn't mind being groomed, or overall handling.  This was put to the test, since he probably had over 100 wood ticks on him when he got to our house, so he was bathed and picked over a great deal this week.  He is excellent on the leash, thoroughly enjoying the daily walks he gets.  The night he arrived at our house, Chester got out of the car carrying his leash in his mouth.  Within fifteen minutes in our backyard he had already found and brought two softballs up to be thrown for him.  He loves playing with toys, either alone or retrieving balls in the backyard with our golden.  The one issue we have had with Chester is that he shows some anxiety over being crated.  He managed to escape the wire crate he was in on Tuesday, and we found him waiting in the middle of the living room with a shoe.  He also doesn't want to be gated downstairs in the family room.  But, when loose in the house, he does not do anything wrong - we have found nothing disturbed what-so-ever.  Even the shoe he holds on to is not chewed.  It seems to be more of a security blanket, to hold on to something of ours, until we get home.  Since that is the only anxiety he shows, and he doesn't destroy anything when left alone, we have felt that it is better to just leave him out when we are gone and that has worked out fine.  Chester will be a VERY good pet for some lucky family.  He will probably do better in a home that he is not left alone a great deal, that seems to cause him a little anxiety.  Chester is ready to find his forever home! 

5/6/01:  Chester is in good shape, enjoying the dog toys that he has found around the house.  He went on the 5 mile Walk for Animals with us yesterday, with no problem.  Although he was ready to sleep the rest of the day after that!   He is very good with our dogs, a three and a half year old golden and a 3 year old westie.  He even tolerates the westie getting in his face (she is used to that with our golden and assumes all goldens will be as tolerant with her!).  Chester has shown interest in our cat, but overall, pretty much ignores him.  This will be Chester's third day with us and HE seems to feel right at home, becoming my shadow if I stray too far from his sight.