Ralph
I saw Ralph listed on Petfinder in May, 2007. He was in the Susanville shelter and his ad described him as a senior basset with tumors and open sores. How could I resist? Who else was going to adopt such a dog? Someone had found Ralph on a local hiking trail where his previous owner had probably abandoned him. His sores were infested with maggots. A wonderful volunteer from the Susanville shelter drove Ralph down to Stockton in the cab of her pickup truck. We picked Ralph up in Stockton and drove him home with all the windows rolled down and the air conditioning on, so we could endure the odor. Ralph had two baseball-sized, black, ulcerated tumors on his shoulder and one large tumor on his belly. In addition to the tumors, Ralph also tested high positive for heartworm. Ralph had surgery to neuter him and remove his tumors. When he had recovered from the surgery, he underwent treatment for heartworm. Ralph was a quiet guy. All he wanted was a comfortable place to sleep, so restricting his activity during his heartworm treatment was no problem at all. He was very low energy and he rarely showed emotion or any kind—no expressions of joy and no expressions of displeasure. We thought that restoring Ralph’s health would bring out his personality, but even after two years, Ralph remained devoid of personality and emotion. Only once did we ever see emotion from Ralph. We had been away for a week and had left the dogs in the care of a house sitter. When Ralph saw that we were home, he raced around and around the deck at least 20 times in excitement! We were astonished, (and worried that he was going to give himself a heart attack)! We never before or since saw such an expression of emotion from him. Ralph hated going for walks and got sick on car trips. Sometimes, it would take days for him to recover from the trip between Redwood City and Mt Aukum. He was clueless about housebreaking and dribbled urine, so he wore a belly band in the house to keep his bed from smelling like urine. He was a picky eater and could not be tempted by anything unfamiliar, regardless of how delicious--no cat food, cheese, home cooked meat or gourmet delights for him. If he was going to eat, it was going to be his usual kibble and/or canned food (beef only—he didn’t care for chicken or turkey). It was that, or nothing, as far as he was concerned. Sometimes he would eat the kibble and ignore the canned food. Sometimes he would eat the canned food and ignore the kibble. He was like a little kid who wanted nothing but peanut butter and jelly—only we never knew if he was going to eat just the “peanut butter”, or just the “jelly”. He could detect a pill hidden in any food, and would refuse any morsel if there was a pill in it, no matter how well it was disguised. If a pill was hidden in his food dish, he would reject his entire dinner. He wouldn’t touch the chewable Heartgard, regardless of how it was presented or how small the pieces it was broken into. In Ralph’s last year, he suffered recurring bouts of pneumonia during which he would stop eating. Blood test results were normal. We suspect that perhaps the previous longstanding heartworm infection had done irreparable damage to his heart and lungs. For a while, courses of antibiotics would restore him to eating again, but the improvement was only temporary. He became very thin and after months of watching him get progressively weaker, we finally set the poor fellow free on September 8, 2009. Ralph, the dog with no emotion and no joy: we hope he is finally happy. Fran and Mark Madden Kirby and Gus September 9, 2009

Riley
Reepa’s Ready Riley, (May 22, 2000-January 7, 2014). Handsome, quiet and loving, that was our Riley. We adopted Riley in October 2010, when his previous owners divorced and turned him over to GGBR. Mark and I never imagined that we would ever adopt such a magnificent dog as Riley. He was big and beautiful, with a happy, gentle, quiet personality. Riley had been a winning show dog for the first year of his life, but when Riley was a year old, he had grown too tall to continue in the show ring, so he was sold to a pet home where he lived until he was 10 years old. His coming to GGBR at age 10 was our good fortune. Riley and our basset, Billy took to each other from the start and were the best of brothers. Whenever they were reunited after being separated, they were always giddy to see each other again. As much as Mark and I miss Riley, we know that Billy misses him more. Rest in peace, Riles. You are loved and missed. Fran, Mark and Billy Madden, January 2014