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After a long time without a dog, Chris and I have adopted Bunk – quite possibly the world’s fattest and cutest Labrador Retriever puppy. He is super smart, a little whiny, snores, and he cannot help but pick things up with his mouth and bring them to you. Perfect!

Finding Bunk took more than seven months of searching and 2,200 miles of driving, and he was right in our backyard the whole time.

Searching

Since we moved to Colorado in January, we have been searching for the perfect puppy. He would have to be a Labrador Retriever, a good hunting dog, and a good companion.

Chris and I thought we finally found a good breeder. He had excellent recommendations and touted his dogs as having all the characteristics we wanted. The only catch was that he is located just outside Minneapolis.

The Wrong One
It’s a testament to how badly Chris and I wanted a good dog that we willingly took off work on Friday and started driving, and we kept driving even as my car’s air conditioning started to give out around Des Moines in temperatures above 90 degrees.

Upon arriving at the breeder Saturday, we noticed about 10 skinny, ugly dogs running around in the yard. We hoped that wasn’t an example of the breeder’s genetic foundation (it was). We got a little more nervous when the breeder greeted us with the sire, which was a 70-pound dog with a rough haircoat and every rib showing. The puppy’s mother was 55 pounds and didn’t look any better.

The breeder’s home and his kennel were one in the same. His basement was filled with about eight or 10 dog plastic dog crates stacked two high, and there were at least five other crates scattered throughout the living areas. The breeder’s porch smelled exactly like a barn and contained at least eight more plastic crates stacked two high with “started” dogs. The litter of puppies were thin, very small for their age and looked more like rats than Labradors.^*

Chris and I knew these weren’t the dogs for us. After 15 hours of driving (one-way trip time from Fort Collins to Minneapolis) and months of excitement, this was a huge disappointment.

The Luck
We started calling the “dog people” in our lives on the way back – calling alternate breeders anywhere in the Midwest we might be able to visit. Bill (Chris’ Dad) called a reputable trainer in Iowa — Contender Retrievers — who said most of their stock is bred in Pratt, Kan. For those of you that don’t know, Pratt is 15 minutes away from the Roenfarm.

Bill dropped all the grandchildren excitement and farm duties to go check out the pups for us that very morning. Chris and I had been just a few miles away from our future puppy no less than twice in the last month alone. We just had to drive all the way to Minnesota to get there first.

Today, we woke up on our seventh anniversary to Bunk. Happy anniversary to us!

The last time we had a dog this age was 1999, and we owned nothing of value that couldn’t be chewed on by a puppy. This time around, it’s a little different. Bunk has a lot of spunk (his parents are Grindstone Molly and Lean Angus – both old, ornery and healthy dogs with great pedigrees). I’m sure that I’m biased, but I think Bunk already loves us – and we’re so happy to have him.

^* Full disclosure: Chris and I like our Labs on the fat side. Our last dog answered to the name “Fatty Fatty Fat-Fat.”