Rescued golden retrievers romp at Gardens reunion
PALM BEACH GARDENS — Talk about unconditional love.
Wagging tales, friendly sniffs and drooling dogs abounded Saturday at Lilac Park when about 100 rescued golden retrievers and their owners gathered for a reunion with a rescue group.
All of the pet parents adopted their canines through Golden Rescue South Florida, which rescued about 150 dogs last year, said board member Lisa Hodgson.
Rocky, a puppy rescued from Puerto Rico just a week earlier, stole the show. Donna and Jules Ridolfi, of Pompano Beach, were scheduled to leave for Maine when they got a call about 8:30 p.m. that a puppy would be flying into Miami International Airport from Puerto Rico the next day. He was the sole survivor of a litter of 11 and needed a home.
The Ridolfis canceled their trip and met Rocky at the American Airlines cargo area instead.
“When we saw him in that little crate, sitting there ... he was so beautiful,” Donna Ridolfi said.
Rocky — whose full name is Rockefeller St. Francis — sat in her lap the whole way home and slept through the night “without making a peep,” she said.
“He’s really been through so much in his short little life,” Donna Ridolfi said.
Golden Rescue South Florida rescued 16 dogs from Puerto Rico and four from Turkey last year, Hodgson said. The organization i s dialing back on its international adoptions because of the $2,000-a-dog cost and the work of other groups, but “the need for rescues in Turkey is terrifying,” Hodgson said.
Golden retrievers were status symbols in Turkey about a decade ago. When their popularity killed the trend, their owners set them loose on the streets, and they became feral, she explained.
The need for rescues in Puerto Rico is no less great, where a place on the southeast coast of the island is referred to as “Dead Dog Beach.” Melinda Steinbacher’s 7- or 8-month-old puppy, Emma, was rescued from Puerto Rico, too.
Steinbacher said she’s training Emma, who napped for much of the reunion, to be a therapy dog.
“She is very, very, very smart. She is very mellow,” she said.
Jeff and Pam Weiner, of Boynton Beach, adopted Cutler after Visit goldenrescuesouthflorida. com or Golden Rescue South Florida on Facebook to learn more about fostering or adopting a rescued golden retriever.
someone left him in a dumpster in Miami. Before that, they saw a golden retriever used as a bait dog with a pit bull in Miami. The dog didn’t survive. Cutler was the next dog to come through Golden Rescue South Florida, Jeff Weiner said. He has recovered from leukemia and mange.
Golden retrievers are easy-going and kid-friendly, Weiner said, noting the couple adopted their 11-year-old son, Jacob, after they rescued another dog.