If you look very closely, you can see the first signs of winter’s departure in the Homeward Bound Memorial Garden, not far behind the recent weeks’ frost.
Of course, the most beautiful colors in Northern California gardens this time of year come from the oranges and lemons that overflow our trees.
Maria and I finished the shrub roses today – and not a minute too soon, as they are already budding. We left these a little taller than the tea roses so they would continue to climb and cover the fences.
We welcomed and trained a couple of new dog walkers today. They are lured in with puppies before introducing them to the big dogs.
I had the pleasure of meeting Elia and her boy, Cooper. Elia adopted Cooper, and his son, Bear around Memorial Day in 2011. She continues to bring them to Homeward Bound for regular training and socialization.
The same tactic has apparently worked miracles on her two teen boys, who both cook and clean! Who knew?
Some of our best friends visited with us in the garden – Nicholas aka Obi who went from his walk to a bath –
and Gina with her twin best bud, Hank.
Thankfully, we have had a good number of adoptions recently – because the call “incoming!” best describes the latter part of the week. Meet Quinn,
Socrates,
and Kyo.
This is Gus.
While we can all see a little too much of Gus right now, that won’t be the case for long. He was adopted today by folks committed to his future weight reduction and exercise routine.
There’s a lot to love here, but we can’t wait to see the before and after.
And this is Christy.
We share a little in common. She is here is because she lost her human dad not long ago. On top of that, she had a needed surgery and dons this cute t-shirt to prevent her from popping her stitches…again.
She spent a good amount of time with us on a blanket in the garden monitoring the rose pruning while basking in the warm, January sun.
Good fortune shines upon her. A family came through that was instantly taken with her. Keep your fingers crossed; it looks like she might have found her forever home.
There are more on their way. It’s like that in rescue – and in gardens.
“The gardening season officially begins on January 1st and ends on December 31st.” – Marie Huston
Gardens For Goldens 
Please get your hands dirty for me because I’m still at least ten weeks away from even getting outside to pick up sticks.
Will do! Enjoy your snow 🙂
So glad to hear you have been having good adoption rates and may that continue far into the future, providing all these wonderful dogs forever homes. Getting the walkers in with puppies is definitely the way to go 🙂 Who can can “no” to one of those cute little pups.
A little bit of bait and switch…but I think we’ll be forgiven. Besides, the joy of helping a dog get adopted is right up there with puppies!
What beautiful dogs and people and plants! Full of joy, growth and viriditas: the rising green flow of Love that takes us back and around and up every spring! Your experience of this certainly blesses my day…we might be way up in the 50’s tomorrow, but way down to 9 degrees on Thursday. No daffodils here for quite a while yet…lovely to imagine them piercing the earth towards light somewhere. 🙂 Thank you!
Let’s just hope they know what they are doing. Mother nature has a way of playing tricks on us here!
Another beautiful post. Such lovelies! And the flowers are pretty, too. Love the connection between gardens and goldens that you consistently illustrate with your words.
🙂 Thank you!
What a beautiful post with beautiful dogs! We just got approved to adopt and we are interested in the new ‘incoming’ dogs featured here!
I assume you mean approved to adopt through Homeward Bound? Yeah! That means you had a home visit and have been assigned a counselor who will work with you to find the best match for you and the pup. You can mention any dog you saw in the post to your counselor and of course, monitor our website. Thanks for considering adoption!