Christmas morning 2013, 4 days ago, was the start of a new exciting journey for our family when we presented Pinkie our new English Cream Golden Retriever to our children! Anna exclaimed "Santa brought us one of his Santa Buddies let's name her Hope" (one of the pups in the movie).

Our kids have earned this dog and Santa knew it, wink wink. A couple months ago we were reading about the ten virgins found in Matthew 25. Our kids had been asking for a dog and I told them we had to prepare for a dog like the ten Virgins had to prepare for the bridegroom by filling their lamps with oil. I bought a lamp at a thrift shop and we began putting oil in our lamp (our oil was lentils because oil seemed messy for little hands) For every kind word or act they got a lentil, for every unkind or wrong word or act we took a lentil out. They finally filled the lamp having good deeds out weigh the bad, thank heaven!

On Christmas morning our bridegroom of sorts came and Seeing the looks on their faces as they saw the new pup is something I will never forget. I will smile when I think back on this day.

This new pup is the right fit for our family and it goes back way further than this with me, as a little girl with an obsession for dogs. I have loved dogs since the time I could remember. I can remember my dad telling me about his dog, Tippy, his childhood dog, his best friend, the Australian shepherd his dad got him when he was 7 years old and my mom telling me about her dogs Hamilton, the Shetland sheepdog, and Tennessee, the dashhound, she grew up loving.

I wanted a dog so bad, I read about dogs, I had dog figurines, and stuffed animals that I adored, but... I longed for a real dog.

We moved around a lot due to my dad in the military, school, and jobs, so we couldn't have a dog. By the time I was in 4th grade I had read every fiction dog book, dog guide book, and dog training book I could get my hands on. The librarian at my elementary school let me know that I had read every dog book they had, so I started reading them all over again. To paint a quirky picture of my obsession, here is a funny, ok weird, little secret that only people close to me as a child know. Are you ready? I learned to replicate the dog bark and many more dog noises, yep I confess when the doorbell would ring, me at the ripe old age of 8, would go running to the door barking so that people would think we had a dog, I would even pretend to tell the imaginary dog to move back as I opened the door, ha ha. My poor family, I don't know how they put up with me, but since I was the oldest child, no one batted an eye.

When I was 10 years old my dad surprised us with the most darling blonde Golden Retriever/Cocker Spaniel mix puppy, Muffy. I finally had a dog! I adored that dog. I took her everywhere and put all my skills and knowledge about dogs to good use and trained her to do amazing things. She even won most outstanding dog at our community dog show for being able to whisper bark, which was moving her mouth to bark on command without any noise, pretty interesting, right? My brothers Jeff and Ryan, my sister Christy, my parents and I could tell stories about her for hours. She had puppies which was the most fascinating thing in my 11-year-old life. Having a dog brought so much love, enrichment, education, and discipline into my life and I am sure my family's life that I want our children Jacob, Noah, Elijah, Anna, Sadie, and Eden to experience.

Jeff and I have decided that we are going to be Miniature Golden Retriever Breeders, which is what Muffy was. We have had different dogs over the years, but my heart keeps going back to my dream dog, Muffy. This is going to be a family project to raise and breed amazing dogs. Our English Cream comes with an impressive pedigree and from wonderful sweet parents. I wanted to make sure we started with a outstanding female (I hate the word bitch, even when being used in dog terms, so it won't be used here) I plan on using this blog as a place to discuss ideas and share this journey of raising this puppy Pinkerton Paulette Hope Taylor or Pinkie for short.

Meet Pinkerton's Family!

Her father Bear (the sire) is from Solid Rock Goldens.

Her mother Bella (The dam) is from Utah English Goldens.

Here Pinkie is in a litter of 9 puppies. So adorable, agreed?

Our puppy is the one with the green nail polish on her head, that's how Desaree our breeder could distinguish each puppy. I thought that was a great idea!