Molly was an old soul. She was a wonderful dog, so full of spunk and personality, and so much smarter than many humans as you will soon see.
Molly was born in October of 2000 with Chloe (& probably a few other pups). Things didn’t start out easy for her with the family she was sold to and lived with the first 5 years of her life, but she had Chloe. She was a great explorer even then. No fence was too tall for her. She routinely took off supposedly to visit the neighbor’s dog when she lived in eastern Colorado, or maybe she was already looking for a better mom? With Chloe she was parked in the back yard as an outdoor only dog and when the family moved and abandoned their dogs, she was saved by the Golden Retriever Rescue of the Rockies.
It’s not surprising that she came with a few abandonment issues. When I volunteered at GRRR events, I often signed up for tear down and clean up. Strange things were happening: Chloe would go into the trailer we were loading and refused to come out. When we were taking the canopy down and laid it on the ground to fold it up, Molly would plop down right in the middle of it and hinder the folding efforts. Similar things happened at home, anytime I put a bag in the car in the attached garage, the dogs were in the car with the first bag, and any efforts to get them to go potty before a long drive were met with stern resistance. The memory of their first family packing up the moving truck and leaving them behind, stayed with them for a long time. As much as I wish they would still be here, it is of great comfort to me that they both passed in their forever home with me by their side.
Molly was adopted to a family by the rescue in November of 2005, but she knew she had been adopted into the wrong house. She had only been in that house for a few hours when she decided to pick a fight with the other dog in that house. She knew that would get her returned to the rescue where I was waiting to take home a foster dog. That would give her a chance to work on me, so I would realize that her forever home was with me . And work it was. It had been almost 2 years since Shelby died and I had barely talked myself into being brave and to risk getting my heart broken again. She not only looked a lot like Shelby but on the first night rolled herself into the recliner just like he always did. It made me sad, but Molly was a skilled expert at comforting humans. And the rest as they say is history.
Having been raised outdoors only presented some challenges for Molly. We would go outside so she could go to the bathroom and when she was done she stood there with this puzzled look on her face – you want me to go into the house with you ? Really? You want me to sleep in you bed with you? Really? I must have died and gone to heaven!
A few days after she came home with me, she suddenly jumped off the couch and raced to the top of the stairs and barked her head off. I hadn’t had a dog in a long time and was freaking out that was alerting me that someone had broken into the basement. I stood at the top of the stairs and listened, and then I heard it – the spin cycle of the washing machine! Molly had never heard that before having been an outdoor only dog, so of course she was alarmed. I laughed so hard I hope I didn’t make her feel bad.
And then right before the holidays we got a call from the rescue to see if Chloe could stay with us as Chloe’s foster person was going away for the holidays. We went down to the rescue to re-introduce the girls as Mary wanted to make sure they would get along. The got along, and within a few minutes decided to show me their superb climbing skills. They climbed up the 6 foot chain link fence in GRRRs play yard using their front and hind paws like little monkeys, I was able to grab on just in time. Apparently they had gotten out successfully several times and had developed a reputation for this (and that 6 foot fence had another foot angled in on top). The girls enjoyed a great holiday season together, then January came and with it the time for Chloe to go back to her foster person. On the morning she was leaving, Molly was coughing like crazy. She figured that since Kennel cough is very contagious, and that with Kennel cough going around our house, Chloe couldn’t go back as planned, as she would expose the other dogs. Our house had to become doggy quarantine and Chloe had to stay for at least two more weeks. During that time the girls continued to demonstrate their love for each other, and made it crystal clear that a separation would not be an option. I had only planned on adopting one girl, but clearly, I was out-numbered.