Growing up, my best friend and favorite playmate in the entire world was Brandy, my beloved golden retriever. From three years old until 17, we were inseparable. She was everything to me and almost eight years after she passed away I still miss her everyday. So when Ash and I were given the opportunity to review the book Pure Gold: Adventures with Six Rescued Golden Retrievers by Holli Pfau, I jumped at the chance. There’s something about the face of a golden, of the way their eyes reflect their deep souls, that makes you feel like everything in the world is good. And it is apparent from the very beginning that Holli Pfau feels the same way.

We are honored to be closing out Holli’s blog tour to celebrate and promote this beautiful book. The thing that initially pulled me into this book wasn’t the story – it wasn’t even the first chapter. What got me, what really made fall in love with this book, was Holli’s dedication. How could you not love a book with this at the very beginning:

The Goldens Behind the Story

For Holli, her journey started with one small golden ball of fluff named Nikki (an awesome name if I do say so myself). It was Nikki that was the catalyst that created a lifetime of learning, inspiring, and changing the lives of dogs and their human companions. The book is narrated from Holli’s perspective and she documents the lives of each of the golden retrievers that enter her life and how they subsequently change it for the better. Nikki, Bodie, Tucker, Sophie, Daisy, and Chatter – they all have a story and this book, these wonderfully written words penned by a talented author, give us a positive perspective on having an open heart and the power of a wet nose.

Both Ash and I highly recommend this story to any dog lover, any rescue or foster parent. It touches the heart and reminds us why we do what we do – for the dogs and for ourselves. This is a book that belongs on the shelves of anyone who has ever worked with animals. If you’re interested in purchasing a copy (and I really think you should), you can find it on Amazon.com and Barnes & Noble. Do it. You won’t regret it.

Giveaway!

It’s your lucky day! You could win a copy of Pure Gold for your very own. Just leave a comment below and tell us a little about an inspirational animal in your life. Giveaway is open to U.S. and Canada residents only (sorry). Deadline to enter the giveaway is Wednesday, December 7. Good luck!

You can see more on the vet’s ratings on our first week’s post here but for easy comparison, here are the results from both vet visits. To reduce bias, the vet was not reminded of the scores she gave before the challenge.

The Scores!

Video Time!

Check out this video documenting the change in our pup’s teeth over the course of the challenge!

(Here’s a link to the video as well!)

As you can see, using the Greenies for just one month had a tremendous impact on the oral health of our boys! Rufus, who started with the worst rating & most problems, had the most marked changes. It was so cool to see his teeth change as the days went on. You can see in the pictures how the plaque & calculus on both his and Spunky’s teeth broke off more and more as the month wore on. Even Snarf, who as a chewer had the best teeth to begin with, showed improvement. All the dogs had improved breath as well, which is one way we can most easily judge the condition of their mouth.

The only “problem” we encountered, which is just a learned lesson really, is that dogs, like people, tend to favor a side of their mouth. We noticed over the weeks that the dogs tended to chew mostly on one side and by the end we saw a definite difference between the two sides. I’m not sure if you can really convince a dog that it needs to chew evenly. Sometimes we tried holding it on the opposite side but they always tried to switch it back. Still, while Greenies may not be the end-all, be-all to oral health, it is a GREAT tool to improve it. And I guarantee your pups will never complain about it! Ours now beg us for them, the spoiled brats! ^_^

And the Winner Is…

Congratulations to Kelly Ann T. for winning our Pet Dental Health Month Challenge Giveaway! Because you participated in the challenge with us, you’ve won TWELVE boxes of Greenies of whatever size your dogs require! Make sure you email us your dogs’ weights as well as a shipping address which we’ll pass along to Greenies so they can get the prize to you.

We here at ILRA would like to give a huge thank you to Greenies for providing us with the product for this challenge as well as for providing the prize! But most of all, thank you for making such a great product that really, truly does what it is meant to. Our kids are healthier for it and you can’t put a price on that!

Also see this shirt on flickr!

About Dirk’s Fund Golden Retriever Rescue

Dirk’s Fund Golden Retriever Rescue is a no-kill organization devoted to the rescue, rehabilitation and successful placement of homeless dogs of all ages. Through the care of a dedicated team of volunteers and the generous donations of our supporters in the community, we are able to provide all the necessary treatments and training to each and every dog that enters our rescue. The combination of all of these factors allows us to provide happy endings and “forever” homes to hundreds of dogs each year.

Since Dirk’s Fund began over 20 years ago, we have rehabilitated and rescued thousands of dogs. There is no better rescue than Dirk’s Fund. No one does more with a buck than we do. We have NO PAID STAFF MEMBERS. A group of very committed volunteers makes it all happen every hour of every day, every day of every year.

Where You Can Find Them

• Official Website
• Facebook
• Twitter

Don’t forget to pledge your own shirt to this project by emailing 365 AT iloverescueanimals.org. This project CANNOT happen without you! Thank you for your support! Find out more about this project on our 365 Days of Animal Advocacy page.

Product Review!

Giveaway!

After we had signed up for this promotion, we went to BlogPaws West, where Bissell was one of the sponsors and vendors. There we received a smaller bottle as a sample and we’d like to pass the awesome cleaning power on to you. So we’re offering a giveaway of an 8 ounce bottle of Ewww so you can try it out in your own home. Trust me, if your home is anything like ours, you’ll be glad to have it! This stuff may allow us some of our pet deposit back yet! The rules of the contest are simple. Just comment below telling us why you would like to win this product. This contest will run until November 30th when a winner will be selected at random. Good luck!

Greenies Pill Pockets is a great product for pet parents who have to give pills to picky pets or for those who have pets on lifelong medication. They are incredibly convenient and easy to use. You just pull out a pill pocket, pop one or more pills into it, close it up and your pet will scramble to eat it. Seriously, check out the video to see our kids scarfing them down. They love them – they think they’re getting treats! In fact, the next day we had to start giving ALL the cats a piece of pill pocket because they would beg for some! Try them out, I bet you’ll love them as much as we do!

Disclaimer: We bought our Greenies Pill Pockets at our vet and were not asked to do this product review nor were we compensated in any way.