Customer Comments & Photos 3
We hope you enjoy these pages.
It is a sprinkling of customer comments & photos,
as well as some of our favorite photos over the years.
Sage has really been a great dog, very calm & well mannered but hunts like a champ.
One of my buddies made the comment that Sage was like a ghost~ you didn’t know she was even there until she was sent to make a retrieve. Everyone I hunt with is extremely impressed with her, you guys did a great job starting her.
Hope you are having a great holiday season and Santa brings lots of chubby puppies.
Take Care,
Tim
We gained the brightest angel in our dog, Luka, June of 2008.
We'd like to share this tribute with you:
I learned about black labs from my dad. He was a hunter & ran many field trials as I was growing up. Lucious Licorice Lass was the family fav & bore us some pups along the way. I remember my papa teaching our dogs to 'heel', among other commands.
I had always wanted a black lab of my own, but Peter felt they were too big to be a house dog. Our family toyed with a cocker spaniel (short-lived), a Jack Russell (friends from that era will always remember Rudy!) and a Westie (poor Roxy, bullied by Rudy to no end). After all that, I was done. I was going to anesthesia school, life with teenagers was cray-cray & I was about to enter the 'winter of my discontent' as Peter calls it....
Our daughter began to petition for a dog. I was gonna have NONE of it....hear me??? NO! Been there, done that, I was through taking care of animals & all I could muster up the energy for was working & trying to care for my family.
Rachel wore Peter down, though, & together they came up with a plan to get a black lab. Thankfully our friend had already gotten an amazing dog from a dog whisperer of sorts & they followed his lead.
Luka came to us the summer of 2008 right in the middle of my near nervous breakdown. I was determined NOT to care for her or care about her. Well, y'all can see how that worked out. As she grew, her Spirit began to shine.
Whereas my dad taught his dogs to heel, Luka, by nature, knew how to heal. Her Spirit began to work on my weary & overladen spirit & brought healing to my very soul. We ran together, we camped and hiked together. She was a soothing balm to our scritchy family of teenagers & menopausal mom.
I bore witness to her healing power among the folks who came to visit or lived with us. Often these people were a bit lost & Luka knew just how to minister to them. When we moved, our first neighbors were her 'grandparents' & loved having her over. She would be there, on occasion, when they hosted healing services for their church ministry. And somehow, Luka would know the very person in need of soothing & would go & lay her head on their lap.
Luka was God's gift to us; a perfect example of His unconditional love & devotion. Her greatest joy was to be loved & to love others. May I learn from her example & strive to be the healer to others that she was.
She was truly a gift to our family and to others she encountered. Thank you so much for providing such a great beginning place for her and for all your great pups.
~ Pete & Chris
Ross's wife got the opportunity to transfer within her firm to Germany. They both love to travel so thought this would be ideal. Ross had been teaching 8th grade English at a suburb school & recently finished his master's in education administration.
Germany places their teachers for the fall in January, so Ross knew his chances of getting a position was slim. He didn't know when they would be able to make the move (bureaucracy plus COVID) so didn't want to apply anywhere until they arrived. He was hoping to be able to substitute teach at one of three International Schools.
He put in his application to those three schools as soon as they arrived. And heard nothing. One of Adrienne's coworkers suggested they take a train to a town about 2 hours away, do a 2 hour hike up to a monastery where they make great beer. They decided this would be a great opportunity to try Reggie out on the train. He did fantastic! Once they got to the monastery and sat down to have their beer, Reggie started hobnobbing with another dog that was close by. Ross, ever the social guy, started up a conversation with the dog’s owner in German, doing his best. Pretty soon the conversation got to be too advanced and Ross told the woman he would need to stop talking.
The woman responded, “Oh, I’m from Florida”! And it turns out that she is a teacher at the very school that was Ross’s top choice! She said they certainly could use him as a sub and she would talk to the principal. He had an interview the next week and was signed on as a sub! Two weeks later the principal called & said one of the 6th grade teachers had to go out on medical leave and he would very much like him to apply for the position. He got the job and loves it!
So it was Reggie who broke the ice, that led to the conversation that got Ross the job. God is good!
British Black lab Reggie, the expat
Reggie is owned by Pete & Chris's son ~ (see above story)
Service Dogs:
Little Brothter, Wellesley, following in Big brother Wallace's footsteps...
"Oops."
~Keira Leary
Dear Robert and Kiply,
This is Cole (Blue Boy)! I hope this letter finds you well and not to tired from working with the litter of pups that was next to me in the kennel.
It has been several days since arriving in Iowa and I thought I would give you an update. I'm now living with Mr. Jeff, his son who I call brother and his daughter who I call sister. Sister really likes me, she lets me sleep in her room at night, and when Mr. Jeff goes to bed she sometimes lets me out of my crate to sleep next to her on her bed, shhh, don't tell Mr. Jeff... Normally, though, I sleep through the night in my crate.
I get to wake up brother and sister every morning when they are home. They have the most wonderful faces that I get to kiss all over until they wake up. Did I tell you they have wonderful faces? I'm naughty sometimes and bite them both when they don't wake up. Mr. Jeff says thats okay on school days, but I can't bite them and I have to let them sleep in on weekends.
We have a wonderful lawn that Mr. Jeff really cares about. He has me help him water it and fertilize it several times a day. I don't mind because there are parts of the lawn that look like they could use a little water and fertilizer. Mr. Jeff really does care about the lawn so much so that he wakes me up at 2am to help him check on it . These 2am trips to the yard are quick and I get to go back to sleep right away. As you know I don't know much about lawn care, so hopefully Mr. Jeff knows what he is doing?
When brother and sister are ready for school I get to ride in the car when we take Brother to school and then I get to walk Sister to the bus stop. I get to walk with the neighbors when we go to the bus stop. My favorite neigbor is Marlo. She is a yellow lab, and although she is much older and bigger than me, she loves to play but is usually really gentle with me. Her brother is Brownie and he isn't very nice. He is a dauschand mix. He growls at me, so I try to ignore him and walk with Marlo to the bus stop. There are a lot of kids at the bus stop that really like to see me. I try to lick a lot of their faces.
When the kids are at school, I get to play with Mr. Jeff all by myself. We don't play long, really, because I usually need a nap after waking up Brother and Sister and then getting them off to school.
All for now, please tell Papa Huck and Momma Jube I say "HI"
With Love, Cole
Wanting to play with the funny looking neighbor dog…
(Oliver the cat likes to jump the fence and visit with us)
FOMO, even at bed time prayers with the kids…
Photo bombing family picture…