Shelby was born in September of 1992. He was a great dog. He taught his mom what it is like to take care of a dog. That was a big job for him as she had absolutely no clue how to raise him except for a ton of books she read – he was her first dog – ever! He may write a book about that some day or at least inspire one =). Mostly he took care of his mom and taught a college level course in unconditional love.
Since I had never had a dog before, I also knew nothing about dog “shopping”. A friend and long time volunteer at large pet rescue organization in Denver, gave me some pointers, such as rolling the puppy on his back and rubbing his belly to make sure he would not bite, and to not take home the first puppy you see, but look at several puppies first. At the end of the lesson he said that all that great advice was important but it meant nothing if there was no magic. There has to be that magic. You will absolutely know it when you see it.
My first stop was at a town house that belonged to a lovely couple who had an advertisement for Golden Retriever puppies in the Denver Post. I was let into the back door of the property and all the puppies were running around on the back patio. I sat down on the ground and put my purse and car keys on the ground and started playing with the puppies. There were 2 boys left, and I had decided on a boy. I was playing with them for some time and I liked both of them. What an impossible decision that would be. So here I am playing with one of the boys, as the other one picked up my car keys that were laying on the ground next to my purse and he headed for the door dragging my car keys in his mouth! I did remember what my friend had said about not going with the first one you see, but — hello!! He did also say that the magic was the most important thing. So I did not have to make the impossible decision, the puppy made it for me. Even then he was a wise soul.
Being a race car driver I named him Turbo at first, a very fitting name for a dog that would spend a fair amount at race tracks. But then we went to our first race together and I realized quickly that just about every dog in the paddock was named Turbo, so I went back to the drawing board until another friend suggest naming him Shelby after Carol Shelby. The name fit him like a glove, but many of the non racing public took him for a girl throughout his life. He did not mind as he was quite secure in his man hood or dog hood.
He lived through the 100 year blizzard of 2003 that dumped over 6 feet of snow on the little town of Conifer where we lived. He played frisbee with a great passion, I have never know a dog who was this obsessed with his frisbees. He loved them so much that he would chew little pieces off it until it was half gone whenever other dogs came to visit as he did not like to share. Not long after the guest left, the frisbee pieces came back out, hurled nicely all over the carpet.
He was also an excellent newspaper fetcher. Sadly that skill got lost in his reincarnation. None of the subsequent dogs have shown any fetching skills what so ever in spite of being Golden Retrievers. Shelby would trek all the way down our very long driveway to bring the paper to the house, even the Sunday paper that was so heavy that he couldn’t quite get it into his mouth, so he picked it up by a corner and dragged it with his head tilted, bouncing boinck boinck boinck up the stairs. He would do anything for his mom. Except live longer enough, and then none of my dogs has (or ever will) pull off that tall order.
He also got Hemangiosarcoma when he was 11 and 3/4 years old, but he was not as lucky as Chloe. It spread all over his liver very quickly and killed him within less than a week of the diagnosis at the day of the Indy 500 in 2004. If it is true what is written in ‘A Dog’s Life’, then he came back as Meeshika.
He was a very good dog.
He lived before the time of digital photography, so it will take a little time and some scanning to post more pics.