Shasta Golden Lake: spiritual intervention or coincidence?

I am not a religious person..... however, our adoption of Shasta was clearly a match made in heaven

I would not be alive today if weren’t for the love of dogs and the responsibility to take care of them. Pretty much the only time the world makes any sense to me is when there is a golden retriever in the room who enjoys my attention, even if all it wants is the pizza on my plate or to throw a ball…over and over and over and over again.

When I got married to my wife, Adele, we created a blended family of three dogs. Adele brought her two English Springer Spaniels, Diane, and Fergie into my life. I brought my golden retriever/collie mix, Bodega, into her life along with Bodega’s extensive collection of hair that she shed regularly. The dogs got along pretty well. But we think Diane and Fergie would tease Bodega when we were away. One day we came home, and Bodega was locked in the powder room. We feel certain that either Diane or Fergie lured her into the powder room with a promise of a squirrel, while the other one quickly shut the door when Bodega fell for the bait.

Bodega was named for Bodega Bay, California. One of my favorite places at the time I rescued her. Her name made some people wonder about my intelligence. When I lived in Arlington, Virginia, I walked her off a leash (illegally). And sometimes she would get ahead of me. When she did I would yell, “Bodega!, Bodega!” One time Bodega got ahead of me, and I called her name as a Hispanic woman was walking the other way down the street. When she heard me call for the dog, she started laughing hysterically.

Once she caught her breath, she yelled to me, “did you know you named your dog, Grocery Store?” Then she continued to laugh hysterically.

I didn’t try to explain Bodega’s name. I mean I knew that a Bodega is small grocery store and that the dictionary definition of Bodega is “warehouse.” I really didn’t care. All living organisms are warehouses in some way, at least for our cells and organs. I decided instead just to smile a sheepish grin, knowing that I did my part to reinforce the stereotype of the dumb Gringo, which made her day.

After Adele and I had been married for a few years, Bodega and Fergie crossed over the rainbow bridge. We were sad. We also decided that we would adopt and older golden retriever. Well, it was more like I decided, and Adele went along for the ride.

As we were pondering that decision, there seemed to be golden retrievers for adoption everywhere. We saw several ads in the newspaper and saw some in shelters. But, once we made the decision to get one, they all disappeared.

There were a couple of golden retrievers up for adoption through the golden retriever rescue organization of Northern California. Our challenge was that we were living in Reno, Nevada and in order to adopt a dog, a member of the organization had to come to our house and check out the property and to determine whether we worthy companions for a golden retriever. We tried to set up several visits. But something always happened. We never were able to arrange a visit. We suspected intervention by the universe.

Finally, we saw an ad for a one-year-old golden. It was a Friday. We rushed over to meet him. We liked him. But we were going away that weekend and asked if they could hold him until Monday. They said they had one other person coming to meet the dog and if that person wasn’t interested they would hold the dog for us. Well, that other person was interested and adopted him. The universe intervened again.

Then we connected with a woman who lived in California. She thought she needed to give the dog up for adoption because of her busy life. We had several phone calls and emails. We scheduled a time and place to meet in Sacramento. The day finally came, and we were filled with anticipation. But she called us that day to let us know that her best friend had just been diagnosed with brain cancer, and she just couldn’t part with the dog because she needed the emotional support. I totally get that. The universe intervened once again.

A couple months had gone by now. And we were pretty frustrated. Adele decided to send a note to most of the golden retriever breeders on the West Coast to see if they were adopting out any retirees.

One high-end breeder, White Dove, which then was located just outside Solvang, CA, had a male she was adopting out. She said that someone had just adopted him. But, if he was returned, we could adopt him. Of course, the people who adopted him fell in love with him. We were foiled again. Damn universe.

We understand why the dog wasn’t returned to White Dove. It is really hard not to fall in love with a golden retriever. They have some sort of Vulcan mind meld ability to make you fall in love with them and then use their eyes do get you to do whatever they want. Mostly, they want food and attention. They also have a way of making you think any destructive habits they have, like eating your couch, is just the cutest thing.

White Dove only communicated by email. A short time later, Adele checked her email early on a Saturday morning. The breeder wrote that she was ready to adopt out a three-year old female golden named Nina. She described Nina. We fell immediately in love.

We also both looked at each other and said, “Road Trip!!.”

This was not a simple road trip. Most people don’t know where Reno is located. If you like Jeopardy, then it would be very smart of you to remember that Reno is further west than Los Angeles. Despite Reno’s western geography, Solvang, where the breeder was located, was over 500 miles away. That meant a real road trip because it required one night in a hotel.

Adele found someone (her ex-husband) to take Diane overnight, then we jumped in the car and sped toward Solvang.

At the time, I did not like to name dogs with people names. I wanted to change her name from Nina. So, to keep us busy on the trip, we talked about possible names. This led to a list of about 100 possible names including ones drawn from my background a plant scientist. For example, I wrote down “Cucurbit” as a name, since it is such an interesting genus for squash plants. Adele rejected that name. She disliked it so much; she was ready to stop and throw me out of the car.

Some of the names on the list were places that we loved. Bodega was named after Bodega Bay, so saying her name brought visions of the beautiful Norther California coast (and thanks to the Hispanic woman, it also created visions of small grocery stores). Thus, places we adored were also on the list including Tahoe and Shasta.

We arrived in Solvang about 8:00 PM. We went immediately to the breeder’s house and met Nina. She was mostly a typical golden in that she immediately used her Vulcan Mind meld to make us fall in love. So, we immediately got out our check book to pay the adoption fee. We did that to try and keep the universe from another intervention. We also had to pick her up in the morning and stay in a hotel overnight, so we paid then so that there was no universe intervention overnight.

We walked into the hotel room later that night. We looked at each other and said, almost simultaneously, that we should rename Nina to Shasta making the other 99 names on the list quickly irrelevant. It was rare for us to have such a quick agreement. I mean I usually argue for the sake of arguing.

We went back to the breeder’s house in the morning and adopted Shasta. Although a condition of the adoption was that we could not breed Shasta, the breeder still gave us her AKC papers.

It was really surprising that given all of the names on our list that we immediately both fell on Shasta as her new name. It became supernatural when we read the AKC papers. The name of our new dog’s grandmother was “Shasta Golden Lake.” You can’t really make this stuff up. Our canine-human relationship with her was truly meant to be.

Shasta, Shasta with Tahoe and Ginger showing the color varieties of goldens, Shasta in front of a new wood stave

We got Shasta in the car and set out back to Reno. Shasta was a bit scared. A rest stops she wouldn’t pee, but instead just put her paws on Adele’s chest and stared lovingly at her. In fact, it took her about two days to be comfortable enough to pee.

Once we introduced Shasta to pizza crust, she came out of her shell of hiding in the corner of our laundry room. Shasta became an extraordinary canine companion that changed both of our lives for the better. We loved her dearly. She also loved us dearly.

I found out for sure that she loved me later when we moved to Columbia, Missouri. Shasta was scared of thunderstorms. So, she hid in one of our bathrooms with no outside walls. She actually went into the bathtub and closed the curtain during thunderstorms. She was a very smart dog.

I was living in Houston at that time while Adele and the dogs were in Columbia. I arrived in my car after a long drive from Houston during a thunderstorm. Shasta jumped out of the bathtub to greet me with unabashed enthusiasm.

I think that was the first time that Shasta ever left the bathroom during a thunderstorm by her choice.

I am not a religious person, though I often can feel spiritual energy, especially when I was doing Yoga every day as a graduate student. But I am not one to believe that anything is destiny. I accepted, however, our adoption of Shasta was clearly a match made in heaven.