DocAndersen
Raven and Dylan are both survivors. They come from an amazing organization called LRCP of Maryland and Virginia. The organization finds and rescues labs and lab mixes all around the Maryland and Virginia area (Virginia, in particular, southern Virginia, used to have a huge dog fighting problem). We have and continue to support the organization. Dylan joined us after a long search. Gwen passed before we left Indiana in Spring of 2011. It took me a couple of years to get over losing Gwen. She had been such a huge part of our family for so long. We, my daughter and I, started looking for a new dog after we moved to Maryland. The old lady (Fran) was lonely. She was the only dog we had for a little over a year.
Our selection process for dogs was one we had honed in finding Fran. We got a lot of useless input from people around the process, but my daughter and I had learned to close that out. Some of the advice was from people that weren’t involved and wouldn’t be involved which were even more frustrating. We settled on a Lab and found Fran as a puppy. As we started the process again, my daughter had a great idea, getting a lab rescue in part that was because my wife did not want a puppy in the house. She hated the reality of housebreaking dogs. We found the LRCP team, and they came to the house to make sure we would be a good fit, but also that we were fit as dog adopters.
We spent a long time with our LRCPcoordinator. She found a dog, in Richmond VA that she felt would be perfect. She was right! Dylan joined our family in June 2012 and started being my walk buddy right away. The pictures shared today are of our second trip to North Carolina. Our vacation in 2014. Raven had joined the family after the passing of Fran in April 2014. The trip to Oak Island North Carolina was Raven’s first family vacation (Dylan had gone with us on several other trips by then, and was a seasoned vacation dog). In Raven’s pre-family there had to have been something with moving water. She was terrified of the ocean. She is still fairly scared of thunderstorms but moving water, no longer. She wouldn’t get into the water until her twins did. Then she got in. Dylan got into the water minute one!
A beautiful dog for sure and glad she seems to have gotten over her fear of water.