My Yellow Lab Ranger

My Boy Ranger

Ranger is everything I could ask for in a dog. After 9 years of having to cross the street to avoid dogs (My Bella was not always so cordial to other dogs) I get to cross the street to say hi to them as Ranger LURVES other dogs. He is also extremely mellow, sometime borderlining on being catatonic. On walks he sometimes even lags behind; there’s nothing wrong with him, he’s just taking his time. That is until he sees another dog, or gets a chance to go off leash, in which case he’ll either perk up or take off like the wind. We have to keep an eye on him at all times. It may be how he ended up in the pound in the first place.

Ranger can also be somewhat reserved. You can tell he loves people, and gets super excited to see new people but I don’t think he was coveted in his old home or showered with love like he is now. He just doesn’t know what to do with that kind of attention and there have been times in the last two months where I have said to myself, I don’t even think this dog likes me. I mean Bella was 80lbs of emotive love; I clearly got spoiled. Ranger’s aloofness has thrown me for loop.  How dog-co-dependent am I?

 But I think I’m bringing him over to the dark side. This weekend we spent a lot of time together. We took many long walks and cuddled quite a bit. When I ran home this morning because I forgot my glasses, he just looked at me with those big chocolate eyes as if to say “I love you Mommy, how can you leave me (with the housekeeper who gives me treats and takes me for walks.”)

Me & Woody circa 1979

While this little vignette is everything the dog whisperer would despise, and I don’t advise others to create such co-dependent dogs–as my mother says, do as i say, not as i do–I felt it to be a cherished moment; a milestone in a distinguished line of loved, spoiled Rosenfeld dogs that go back to the 1970’s.