Lo-lo, our lovely big boy is the one that got away. He had a special way about him that t melted your heart and walked away with a piece of it, no matter who you were. Loden was born on 12/4/06 and arrived to us on 2/22/07 at 11.5 weeks old. He was a mellow boy who was amazing. He started coming to work with me right away and was content to lay there and play with his toys all day and snooze. Soon after he arrived, it became evident that he wasn't quite healthy. Loden had a persistent cough and was put on a strict "no flat collar" protocol. He was to wear a head collar at any point that he was on leash. X-rays showed an enlarged heart, "old dog" (cloudy) lungs, a deformed trachia and a couple other things. After a round of antibiotics there was no improvement. A couple weeks later he had another set of xrays and a trach-wash to check for infection in his lungs. Before the results were in, GDB requested Loden be removed from my home to be closer to GDB vets. He left on May 30, 2007 and was with a CFR (community feild representative) for over a month. The news we got was that he was healthy and he later went to a raiser. I saw him in August and was honored to spend some time with my sweet boy. His raiser said he was healthy and no longer coughing but other raisers in their club overheard and told me he still persistently coughed and unhealthy. Loden went into formal training and made it through all 10 phases of training to be a guide dog. He was career changed for "kennel induced allergies" and placed in a foster home. That was in September 2008. Early 2009 he was placed as a canine buddy with a visually impaired child. I haven't seen him in almost three years, but I know my little mellow-yellow is still bringing smiles to everyone's face he meets and he is the perfect dog to introduce his little girl to the world of dogs and to help prepare her to make the decision to have a guide dog in the future or not. I don't know where Loden is, but I know he's with a family that loves him and that he loves and I hope to send a giftbox with a scrapbook of his puppy pictures and some gifts in the near future.
