One of our favorite places to walk our dogs is MacCready Reserve in Liberty Township – just south of Jackson on Skiff Lake Rd. The 408-acre reserve is made up of forests, marshes, ponds and prairie terrain with 7 miles of trails rolling through it all. All of the trails are well marked and color-coded with a map, for those who want to know where they are going, at the meeting facility by the parking lot.

The absolute best thing about MacCready Reserve? You can take your best buddy with you! Dogs are allowed – they need to be on a leash and you need to pick up after your pup, but quite honestly you should be doing that no matter where you take your dog for a walk.

MacCready Reserve came about when the MacCready brothers, Lynn, Doug and Willis, donated the 408-acre tract of land to MSU in September of 2001 in the memory of their parents, Lynn and Thelma MacCready. The property is a research, educational and on-going restoration project of MSU, but in the summer of 2008 was opened to the public. MSU built a meeting and storage facility at the reserve to prepare it for public use – which also includes public restrooms.

Our tailwaggers enjoy nothing more than going out to MacCready for an hour or two of a nice sniffing walk. We’ve seen loads of deer, rabbits, squirrels, chipmunks, all sorts of birds including pileated woodpeckers – as well as wild turkeys. Our favorite trails are the yellow and blue because they are rolling up and down and twist around, but there are also more gentle trails – such as the red trail. In the fall of 2013, a 540-foot boardwalk was built to connect the 408-acre main section of the reserve to the additional 62-acre island of white pine trees – adding to the varying terrain and trails the public can use.

It is a great place to take your pup for a walk, get some fresh air or just get away for an hour or two. MacCready Reserve is located at 9243 Skiff Lake Rd and is open from dawn to dusk every day with the exception of mid-November to the beginning of December.

Jasper is our Little Man. He is a two-year-old Golden Boy. He is the only male tailwagger we have ever had. He loves nothing better than to eat found objects, play with other dogs or cuddle with one of his humans. Nothing upsets him – well, not for long anyway. Jasper has few objectives in life: food, fun, torment Boo, and nap – preferably in that order. He is gentle and inquisitive and has a confident boy-dog swagger; he holds his chest out and bounces from side to side almost as if he might have springs in his paws. When one of his sisters takes his bone, he simply gets up and gets another – not much bothers Jasper.

Jaspy is without a doubt the cutest Golden Retriever ever – period.

We got Jasper when he was 7 weeks old. He is roughly 5 months younger than Boo, our other Golden, and 4 years younger than Schatz, our English springer spaniel. We knew shortly after getting Jasper that there was something wrong with him. On an average day, we would take Jasper outside to urinate up to 40 times and he would still have accidents in the house. He seemed to understand he was supposed to ‘go’ outside, but he still had frequent accidents in the house. Other than that he acted like a normal puppy – playing, dancing, crying when he didn’t get his way and begging for treats. He immediately took to Boo, although she was not so sure about him in the beginning.

It was about two weeks after getting Jasper that he was diagnosed with his first UTI. The first of a long series of UTI diagnoses, followed by a period of antibiotics and a short period of time after getting off the antibiotics before he was diagnosed with another UTI. This was a circular pattern that repeated itself for months and months. Jasper’s Vets were at a loss as to what the problem was and the UTIs were always odd strains that were highly resistant to antibiotics. His Vets finally decided that it was best that we take Jasper to Michigan State University Small Animal Clinic. After Jasper’s second visit, his MSU Vets finally discovered the problem. He had a fistula in his urethra that created an abnormal channel to his rectum. It was a two-way street in which fecal matter and urine went places they shouldn’t be going.

Jasper had surgery July of 2015 to fix his birth defect and he has been doing awesome since. Throughout the months of on and off UTIs, Jasper never acted sick – he was always the playful, energetic Golden Retriever pup constantly in trouble. After his surgery – yeah, well…he just got into even more trouble at that point.

When we first got Jasper we thought the little guy was the fattest puppy we ever saw. But then the Vet told us he wasn’t fat; he was simply 50% fur. We were completely surprised when we gave him his first bath. He didn’t even look like the same dog! Half of him just disappeared – the furry puff-ball half. It didn’t take very long before his puppy fluff dissipated, but he is still on the puffball side compared to Boo.

When Jasper was a puppy he wouldn’t bark. All of the Goldens we have ever had were not barkers and generally speaking I don’t think Goldens are big barkers. If the doorbell rang, they would let out a bark or two in greeting while giving a frenzied butt-wag of a welcome. But Jasper wouldn’t even bark when the doorbell rang or someone knocked on the door. He would get excited and wanted to know who was at the door, but he would not bark – ever.

One morning, when Jasper was a little over a year old, he was playing with Boo when Boo decided she had enough and sat down. Jasper tried to get her to play some more but she wouldn’t get up. He eventually lay down in front of her and in frustration started to whine. Next thing we knew the room was filled with this deep, loud rumble of a bark. Boo jumped up and ran to the door to look for the dog that was obviously outside. Jasper’s humans looked at each other in disbelief that the Little Man had finally found his barker and Jasper stood behind Boo trying to figure out what she was looking at and where all the noise came from. To this day, Jasper still looks a little confused when a bark escapes his Golden mouth.

Jasper had to wear a muzzle until he was about a year and a half old. We would get the strangest looks when we took him to the park or for a walk. People would comment that they had never met an aggressive Golden Retriever before. We responded by asking if they had ever met a Golden Retriever that ate EVERYTHING before? They usually responded with a knowing nod of the head and a smile. Anyone who has ever owned a Golden knows that they will eat anything – edible or not – it does not matter.

Jasper’s official title of Habitual Thief and Master Counter-Surfer is a title the Little Man takes seriously. If Jasper is not sleeping or eating he is more than likely in trouble. And that trouble most likely revolves around the thievery of any object that smells like one of his humans or food. Some of his favorite personal items are socks, shoes, sweatshirts and t-shirts – but any old thing will do – including iPhones, moisturizing cream and a mouth guard to name a few. Jasper’s absolute favorite items to steal are pillows. Part of the pillow thievery revolves around playing chase. He knows if he walks by one of his humans with a pillow dangling from his mouth, he will more than likely be chased by that human. According to Jasper there is nothing better than a game of ‘keep away’ with one or both of his humans. But Jasper also just likes pillows. He likes to sleep with his head elevated. If Jaspy wants to take a nap in the living room, he will go into one of the bedrooms and grab a pillow and take it into the living room, set it down and lie next to it, put his head on it and go to sleep.

Jasper is continually checking out what is on the kitchen counter or table. He loves to steal kitchen towels or potholders, if he can reach them, and to check out what is in the kitchen sink that he might be able to grab. His humans keep the kitchen counter and table clean of items Jasper might take, but he has still managed to score a few items. His biggest booty was 5 homemade oat bran muffins that he and Schatz (his partner in crime) split. The Little Man pulled them off the counter, because Schatzi is too short, and they ate them together while Boo watched. He has also managed the occasional banana and bread crust as well. It doesn’t pay to leave anything near the edge of the counter in our house.

It is hard to go anywhere without the Little Man at our heels. He follows us everywhere and if we are not going anywhere he will lay under the desk one of his humans is working at or at the feet of the other. He is a typical Golden and it is hard to move without stepping on or backing into the Little Man. Sometimes – if we stop too quickly – he runs into the back of us because he was following us that close.

Life with Jasper is interesting. He knows how to keep us busy. Even though the Little Man can be a bit annoying – especially when you are trying to wipe off his wet paws and he grabs the towel and runs out into the rain with it – it is hard not to just be swept up in his carefree, fun-loving attitude. He is such a Golden Boy – always under foot, always wagging his tail and always looking for ways to have fun. We are incredibly grateful that his birth defect was fixable. It is hard to imagine what our day would be like without our Little Man in our home and hearts.

 

 

The first member of what eventually became our current pack of tailwaggers was Boo! Little Boo came from Buckeye Kennels in Wauseon, Ohio. She was the runt of her litter and weighed a little less than 4 pounds when we got her at 7 weeks. Her breeder assured us that little Boo wasn’t overly submissive; Boo is the “perfect blend of naughty and nice! I really like her gentle disposition and a touch of sass!” How right she was.

When Boo was a puppy we called her Boo-Boo (and still do at times) – her head seemed huge compared to the rest of her body and her legs were rather short as well. She was a cuddly, snuggle pup that we could hold in one arm. That all changed in a very short amount of time and she turned out to be a 55 pound, lean and long-legged Golden. Now we call her Little Princess because she can be a bit of a diva – not wanting to get out of bed too early in the morning, turning her nose up at playing with the dogs at times and completely freaking out if a bug so much as dares to land on her fur coat. Sometimes we wonder if there is really a cat inside all of the golden fur.

Boo seems way too independent for a Golden Retriever. There are times when she wants to be close to her humans and Jasper and Schatz and then there are other times in which she just wants to be alone. We often find her alone in one of the other rooms or under the dog futon taking a nap or watching us from afar. Or maybe she is pondering the meaning of life – who knows?

We think Boo suffers from multiple personality disorder. She can be the sweetest, cuddly pup (Boo-Boo) and then 10 minutes later upset about something. If Boo does not get her way she starts to bark and bark and bark – like a little kid in a candy store throwing a tantrum and yelling, “I want, I want, I want…!” Or she starts to dig with her front paws incessantly at the carpet, her bed or the dog futon, taking her frustrations out on it.

We used to call Boo, Lady Boo, because she can be very particular about her appearance and how she acts. When it is dinnertime Boo, Jasper and Schatz are usually pretty patient while we are getting their dinners ready. But all three dogs cannot help but drool in anticipation of food. It is how they drool that is the difference between Boo and the other two. Jasper drools and drools, but his chest sticks out and catches most of it and anyway, Jasper does not care if he is covered in drool. Schatz has drool hanging and falling from her mouth and jowls everywhere and when she moves to get her food there is always a little drool puddle on the floor where she stood. Boo – however – licks her chops excessively so that she won’t drop spit on her fur coat or the floor. We have never had a dog that seemed averse to drooling – that is one of the reasons she had the nickname Lady Boo, because her impeccable manners should place her somewhere in the realm of canine royalty.

Another reason we called her Lady Boo is the special relationship she has with bugs. Boo gets extremely upset when an insect lands on her fur. She tries to catch it or if that fails she runs from it. There are times when she thinks there is a bug on her and she goes round and round in circles chasing her lower back looking and looking for the bug – but neither human ever saw one. The little girl can be a bit paranoid about bugs.

Boo also tends to run in a more lady-like manner – she skips. She can run like a normal dog, but she does not. She skips. She sort of hops and bounces her way across the grass, throwing her two front legs out at once, followed by her back legs kicking backward and up a little. She looks a little funny skipping, but if you know Boo’s personality it fits right in.

We stopped calling her Lady Boo the first time Boo proved to us that there was a real dog under all that prim and proper fur and that was the first time she thoroughly rubbed the side of her face, shoulder and side in a nice pile of wild animal diarrhea. Instantaneously Lady Boo became Stink Boo. Stink Boo loves to go for walks anywhere, but her favorite spot is Falling Waters Trail or MacCready Reserve. She loves pulling along her human on intense sniff walks and searching out and quite often finding piles of stinky stuff to roll in.

It is hard to believe it has almost been three years since we got Boo. We love our Little Princess, our Boo-Boo and our Stink Boo. Like all dogs she has her own distinct personality, quirks and habits – but those distinct characteristics are what make her so special to us. Happy 3^rd Birthday Boo!!