@karen00 My lab was chocolate and I got him for $10 at the pound when I lived in CA. He had been tied by a rope that he had chewed off and escaped and he was in a restaurant begging when animal control picked him up. I got him right after he was adoptable and we had lots of good years together. He got bit by a rattlesnake in CA which was expensive and his face swelled up. I was at an art show when it happened when my sister was caring for him. I and my sister both moved back to the Midwest and he was on a dogsled team with my her dogs. That was a lot of fun dashing through the woods. One time we came flying past a heard of deer that were laying down resting, and they suddenly rose and were bounding off right next to us which got the dogs excited and they went faster trying to catch the deer. He was great with cats (I had 2 cats back then) and he lived to be 18. I used to take him to the nursing home to visit from father in law. The other patients loved him.