Woof! My name is Apollo, but Joy seems to call me ‘No Bark Apollo” a lot because I like to bark at everything I see. I was taken off the streets of Istanbul, Turkey, kept in a shelter for many months because airplanes couldn’t fly me to the United States because of something called COVID-19. I was picked up at JFK airport by some nice people who drove me north to Massachusetts and the Yankee Golden Retriever Rescue shelter.
Soon after I arrived a nice lady who was grooming me said “Have you thought about this dog for Joy?” It seems Joy had a Yankee Golden from Turkey and was looking for another. I turned on my charm and Joy took me home, gave me treats, a nice bed, a fenced yard, walks and she let me sleep on her bed at night! I like to cuddle.
My reward is to serve as the neighborhood sentry, I bark when someone walks down our street, when someone passes through the adjoining woods, when that turkey bird comes to feed on the corn Joy puts out, when the deer herd passes through and sometimes just for the heck of it. I also have been known to make an announcement when a leaf falls off a tree. As we live in the woods, that happens often. Joy doesn’t seem to think that’s an occurrence worthy of note, but I think otherwise.
I guess I shouldn’t write just about myself, because I now share my home with another Golden named Colby. He joined out household at age 12 ½ when his owners moved to Florida and they didn’t want to take him along. He has some health issues, like Grande Mal seizures, but Joy’s got him on medications and he seems to be doing OK. Oh, and he’s also deaf, but he does seem to hear me bark when I say something important is going on, so he joins me in my barking. We make a pretty loud duet. Sometimes I get a bit jealous because he follows Joy everywhere even when she’s just going across the hall, but I suppose if you lose your home at that age, you’re a bit insecure. But he’s a nice old guy and he’s now 14 years old. We take our walks together and sometimes he gets bored when I want to sniff out a spot for a long time, but he’s pretty patient with me.
Joy even took in an old cat! Mishka gave me a swat on my nose the first day we met, but when she realized what a nice dog I was, we got along fine. We’re not cuddly bunnies, but we both go off and sleep on our own beds and she stays out of my dog dish.
–Apollo Viola