We adopted Bert, a golden retriever mix, in Dec. 2006. My two previous dogs had been purebred goldens so I was used to that personality. Bert had been rescued off of a farm in Missouri where he lived with 40 other dogs and no human contact. They estimated his age to be about a year when they rescued him. He was in a foster home for two months before we adopted him. The foster mom said he was very shy and scared because he had not had any human contact prior to being rescued. I thought, how bad could it be. Hmmmm, little did I know! He was very scared. Luckily, we had an older golden who was able to show him the ropes and help him over some of his fears. She was truly a wonderful big sister to him. But even with Abby's help, he was very slow to come out of his shell. He took to me right away because I walked with him, fed him and generally spent most of the time with him.We've had him over two years now and he's come a long way. He is still very scared when we go places that he's not familiar with and I don't think he will ever have that really friendly golden personality, you have to bascially earn his trust, instead of him just giving it to you freely, but he is truly one of the most gentle, lovable dogs I have ever had the pleasure of being with. We lost our Abby girl at the end of January and both Bert and I miss her very much, but he was lucky to have such a great big sister to show him that humans are not all that bad.

Beth Resemius
lake elmo, MN