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Link on one of our walks near the cottage

Pretty much everything in my life has changed since I last posted something on the blog. I've been pregnant and given birth to a beautiful baby girl. I've gotten married. I've lost my best friend and best dog in the world, Link, and gotten a new dog, Eddie.
Since this is a "dog blog", I will not dwell on the first part, but focus on the latter, the dog part.

My beautiful Link

We lost Link during our vacation in Sweden this summer. Long story short; he was hit by a car and died instantly. This is now almost 3 months ago, and still not a day goes by that I don't miss him terribly. Just last night I dreamt that we were out doing field training with other retrievers and their owners. He did so well, he was happy and I was so proud of him. But alas, that will never happen again. He will never lie close to me again, never beg at the dinner table, never happily offer behavior during clicker sessions and never excitedly wag his tail while I pack dog training stuff in my bag to go out and train with him.

Me and Link

He was with me during the hardest parts of my pregnancy and was a saint when we brought our little daughter home from the hospital. He was my first baby, even though we weren't the same species. In my mind he was really my baby. I loved him more than what is possible to express with words. He was my best friend, my baby and my rock. I will never love an other dog like I loved him. Now he is gone. It is times like this I wish I believed in some kind of heaven. I would like the thought of him being somewhere nice, where I could run around and play and be happy. But he is just gone, and somehow I have to find a way to accept that.

Link and my daughter

To fill the void, but not in any way to replace Link, we started looking for a new golden retriever puppy. We found a breeder a couple of hours away from where my mom lives. She had a litter of golden puppies, and one male left for sale. We went to see them, and as always when just visiting a breeder "to have a look", we decided we wanted little Eddie. Or Dio as we thought we would call him at the time.

Me and Eddie the first time we met.

Eddie would not be old enough to leave his mom for another week, so we returned a week later to take him home to my mom's. It was when we were driving from the breeder that we decided that the name "Dio" was not right, he felt more like an Eddie.

Eddie the day we brought him home.

We had another 2 weeks left of the vacation when we got Eddie. We also had an 1800 km long drive to get home.. Considering that we had a 4 month old baby and a 2 months old puppy with us, it went really smooth! Both of them slept for most of the time, and when we stopped to feed the baby, we fed and played with the puppy.

Eddie's mother.

When we got to Norway, we stopped at the family cottage and stayed there for a couple of days. Here Eddie met my in-law's dog Scott. He is a Danish Swedish farm dog and he is 6 years old. He is the sweetest dog in the world, but he is too much of a push over for his own good. I believe he was relieved that Link had finally started to act like an adult, and here we bring home a new puppy! He was less than pleased, but like always he was very nice to the puppy and had more patience than he should've with all the puppy shenanigans.

Eddie when we were back from our vacation in Sweden.

So here we are. Marriage, baby and new dog. Lots of things to be happy about and thankful for. Don't take me wrong, I do appreciate the things I have. One thing is certain though, nothing and no one could ever replace Link.

Spring in Northern Norway

I might not be impartial, but I believe Link is the most beautiful dog in the world.

This year we have, unlike most years, had a proper spring! Usually winter turns into summer in less than a week, but this year we have had spring for about a week so far, and we're not even in May! Love it!

Love you Link!

 So to enjoy the fantastic weather we woke up to today, we drove to Berg, to walk along the shore there. Berg is just a 10 minute drive from Tromsø. Link really loved it! As soon as we let him off leash he went directly out into the water. He really loves the water...

Link sitting like a bear :)

We also took the oportunity to do some training in a more difficult setting. We practices "bear" (i.e. is sitting like a bear), "kiss" (i.e. Link holding his nose against our lips) and "pray" (see picture below).

Link praying.

Link kissing.

It was a wonderful walk, in wonderful nature and wonderful weather. Everything was simply wonderful!

Wonderful Link!

Link's birthday and weekend at the cottage

Beautiful birthday boy!

It was Link's second birthday Thursday 29th January, but I haven't been able to write about it because my computer is sent to the repair shop.
Anyway, the day started of great, we took an extra long walk to work and when we got there Link got treats and a dried cow's ear before I had to start working. It was a normal day at work, until a few minutes past three in the afternoon. We, and the entire two northernmost counties in Norway, had a power outage. The power didn't come back until well into the evening. So we just had to make do with some flashlights and candles, trying to help customers and treat sick animals. I think we managed quite well considering how limited we were by the loss of electricity.
Anyway, when we got home Link got a luxury dinner consisting of his favorite canned food, fish oil and some of his favorite treats.
I think that, apart from having to lie alone in the dark for a couple of hours, Link thought the day was pretty good.

Link 2 years old. He almost looks smaller than he did on his first birthday, but that is because he has shed all of his undercoat.

Link at 10 months of age.

The weekend after we went to the cottage with my boyfriend's parents and their Danish Swedish farmdog Scott. It was fairly cold -10 degrees Celsius (14 degrees Farenheit) and windy, but apart from that the weather was wonderful. 

The view of the lake from the road leading up to the cottage. A beautiful view of the sunset!

 We went for a long walk both days. First on the road that goes around the lake and then across the lake, on the ice. The sky was so beautiful with the pink and turquoise clouds and the sun just above the horizon. We were outside for almost two hours and I didn't even want to go inside when we got back to the cottage! I could have stayed outside forever if the sun hadn't set.

My boyfriend, his parents and the two dogs on the ice on the lake.