Adopted Dogs · Happy Endings · Rainbow Bridge Memorials
January 19, 2009:
Please welcome Moose to the RAGOM family!! I have to tell you this boy is just WONDERFUL!!!! He has been the perfect houseguest. What can I tell you about Moose?
- Moose is a very well adjusted, loving dog.
- He is 6 years old and lived with the same family for 5.5 years.
- Easy, easy, easy, easy to have around.
- He is 100% housetrained.
- He is very quiet. Yet to hear a bark out of him.
- Loves, loves, loves my husband and me. He needs to be in the same room as us. If we go upstairs, he will let out a little whine that he misses us.
- Doesn't try to get up on furniture.
- Gets along wonderfully with my resident dog.
- Great in the bath.
- Not a runner. Stays very close to us.
- Gentle giant!!
- So far he has not gotten into anything he shouldn't.
- Rumored he is great with kids and cats but we have yet to test that, but I would be so surprised if there is an issue. He is truly just a sweet, mellow boy
- Mellow! Sweet!
- When one of us walks into a room and he is laying down that tail just starts thumping and he will get up to greet us.
- Loves being outside in the snow rolling around.
- GREAT COMPANION if you just want to chill. Doesn't ask for anything and is not pushy with the pets.
- Crate trained but doesn't seem to need it.
- Baby gate respecting.
- LOVES HIS BELLY RUBS!!!
- Our big teddy bear snores!
- Good in the car. Just lays there. My husband takes him everywhere and he just loves it!
- Knows sit, lay down, and comes really well to his name.
I do have a cute story to tell you how much Moose loves his people. I went out the garage door to put something in my car. He was right behind me at the door. I came back in another door right next to it and he had his nose to the door I had just left waiting for me to come back in. He really just melts my heart!!
Ok, seriously this boy is amazing and we absolutely love him!
A few things that you need to be aware of, but should not deter you if you are the right family.
- Moose weighs 136 pounds. He needs to get down to 100 and possibly even 90.
- He has a bad ear infection that he is now on meds for.
- He has a case of tapeworms and is on dewormer already.
- Due to his weight he has problems getting up and down, but he does it like a trooper! Anything to be near his people! Once some of the weight is off, he will be feeling a lot better.
- Doesn't really like going downstairs right now due to his weight.
I am not kidding you, this boy is amazing!!! If you are committed to help him lose this weight and keep it off, please don't hesitate to contact your placement advisor. One meeting with him and you will fall in love!!!!
Moose will be at Chuck and Don's from 1-2 on Saturday. You seriously have to come meet him! You meet him and you will see everything I have told you and you will fall in love!!!!
Moose is just wonderful!! He has settled into our house like he has been there forever. We love him SO much!
A few more things that I have learned from our love bug:
- Moose gets free roam all through the night. Not a peep out of him and he doesn't disturb ANYTHING!
- He can go hours and hours and hours without getting let out and when he is let out there is zero urgency. When he goes out there, he knows outside is where he does his business and he does it FAST. In and out! Love it on these cold days. :)
- Does not jump up. We had people over and he greeted them so nicely. One of the people is scared of dogs and she just LOVED him
- He does commands for food. So cute to see him plop that butt down
- He is feeling better and loves his people! He has now braved the stairs so he can be with us.
He is just so fun to have around. You are really missing out if you don't want to meet him. He has the sweetest, gentlest soul. He has captured our hearts.
Thanks to everyone who came to Chuck and Don's today! Moose had so much fun meeting his fans. He loves people so much and we now know that he is wonderful and gentle with children of all ages and sizes.
Moose is just amazing. He gets along with everyone and everything. He met a snarky dog today and he just backed up and wanted to get away from any sort of confrontation. He is also really good with dogs of all sizes. Very gentle. He met our little yorkie neighbor dog and just loved him.
I also wanted to let you know that he is great on the stairs. Moose and the resident are always racing to see who can get up and down first.
We just absolutely love this boy. Please contact your placement advisor if you would like to meet him!
I guess the boy just isn't a fan of the crate anymore.
Oh my little Houdini.
How I love you!
Hello my fellow Moose fans! Moose just continues to be a joy to have in the house. You want to talk about a perfect, low maintenance dog, Moose is your man. He had his second day of free roam of the house and he was perfect! Nothing out of place in the house and after nine hours and he was there to greet me at the door! I did discover that he does go right through baby gates and I have also just discovered, as you can see from the picture, he is quite comfortable on furniture.
We love him, love him, love him. The wonderful thing is that he loves us right back! So excited to see us with his tail wagging and always content to just chill with us or go for a car ride for us. Moose, you seriously are one in a million!
Great news!!! Moose has already lost 5 pounds!! He is down to 130. The pounds are just falling off. We basically have cut back on his food intake and he is getting a cup and a half of food twice a day. No people food or treats for him. We haven't been on any walks yet due to the weather, but I am hoping it will warm up before we know it! His ears are looking a lot better and he just needs to continue to be on ear meds for another couple weeks.
We also got him x-rays while we were there to see if he had hip issues. He does have a bit of hip dysplasia in his right hip and with that he is starting to get arthritis. With serious weight loss and pain meds as needed, he could live a very pain free life with no problems with his hips. We are to the point now where he is only on the pain meds as needed.
Moose is such a happy boy. He flies up and down the stairs and is having fun here. He has such a great personality. He is always up for a little play or to just lay with you and relax. Please don't let these things deter you. He is just the perfect companion.
Contact your placement advisor to meet him. You won't regret it!
We miss you Moose like crazy. Cami misses you so much and we just feel like the house is so empty and our lives are not the same without you. We will never forget you. You will always have a very special place in our hearts.
We love you!!
From Moose's forever family...
We adopted Moose a little over a month ago, and he/we are adapting well! Our 3 kids love him as much as we do, and he’s definitely a part of the family. He’s gone on car rides, helped build snow forts, and will have his first hotel trip with us during spring break (can’t leave home without him, of course!). Our big goal this summer is to take him on some short camping trips, and if all goes well, we’d like to go to the Boundary Waters. We’ll see! He is now down to 114 lbs, with at least 14 more to lose…the daily walks and the dog park are doing wonders!
We’d like to thank his foster family who not only took great care of him, but represented him well with honest and helpful updates on the RAGOM website. We’ve enjoyed every step of this process, and appreciate all that the volunteers do to make these connections happen. Thank you!!!!
Moose is down to 111.6 pounds now (we’ll give him the benefit of not rounding up) and has a bit more “spunk”…. and, he RETRIEVED!! We were so excited to finally see Moose retrieve an object, after many attempts to get him to do this. It wasn’t without a little food incentive (and oodles of love and praise from all of us), but he did it!
Today we celebrated Moose’s “Adoption Day” – hard to believe it’s been a year! It seems he’s always been with us.
He continues to be a fun, good-natured dog, as you can see by the pictures. We all adore him, and he goes EVERYWHERE with us. Haven’t checked his weight lately, but last time we did, he was still down at least 25 lbs. from when he first came to RAGOM. He’s scheduled to take the test to become a therapy dog (through Therapy Dog International) later this spring, and we hope he passes! Wish us luck!
--The P family
We are proud to say that Moose was a GREAT companion on our Boundary Waters trip this summer. Despite his size (though he’s still managed to keep off more than 20 lbs.!), he managed to get in and out of the canoe rather well. We just had to shift our weight a bit to keep us balanced! He carried 4 days worth of dog food in his back, as everyone had to carry something! We actually trained for that, adding a couple more cups of food every few days prior to the trip. I think the training paid off!
During our trip, we encountered what we believe was straight line winds, which was very scary. That night, a tree fell across our bodies and right on our tent, and several other trees fell all around us. Despite the chaos that night (i.e. the rain and thunder, the train-sounding wind, the broken and leaking tent and the sawing of the tree to get it off the tent), Moose managed to handle it all well. In fact, he pretty much slept through most of it!
Camping with a Golden is wonderful!
