Dale Matson
Well, our last Airedale, Duke died this past Spring. I have owned Airedales for forty years. Their temperament grows on you. Sharon and I have had three Airedales together. Brown was our first and got carsick wherever we went. Susie was our second Airedale and she was my trail companion for many years. Duke was a big and affectionate Galoot who spent some time on the winter trails but was mostly our house dog.
Duke had a thyroid problem that was diagnosed after he went to well over 100 pounds. After being treated, he slimmed down to a solid 90 pounds.
Anyway, when he died we looked at each other one day after saying we would not get another dog and said to each other, “We NEED a dog in our lives.” At age 75, I figured the dog would probably outlive me but we both decided another Airedale was out of the question. While active, we are too old and feeble to handle another big dog.
We researched dogs and settled on a mini Golden doodle. Their maximum weight is about 35 pounds.
We went to a local breeder and had a chance to pick seventh out of a litter of nine puppies. We wanted another boy and the last two were one female and one male. While the female ran around like crazy and barking, our dog snuck out through the fence into another room. He is an escape artist!
He is a sweetheart and FINALLY, after 18 weeks, he had all his shots and we could take him for a walk. He got his name Hobbes from the cartoon “Calvin and Hobbes”. We were forced to get a dog. We had very little left to say to each other after all these years. Now we have lots to talk about and the grandkids all want to take him to their house.
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