Joey is living the Lab life of her dreams with her new parents, Elyse and John, who are very impressed with all the progress their new pup is making. Her new big sister, Minou, on the other hand, has been a bit less dazzled by the new addition but will allow a bit of cuddling now and then.Joey’s parents tell us:
We welcomed approximately 8-month-old Joey (formerly Sweetie) into our lives in May 2025 after deciding we wanted to bring home a younger sister for our 9-year-old lab, Minou. Joey’s arrival was just in time for her to meet, play with, and learn to love our 17-year-old cat, Wally, before we had to say goodbye to him in July. Joey’s presence in the home has helped heal our hearts from losing Wally, and she has lived up to her baby kangaroo namesake by hopping around the house with her goofily large paws. Minou is pretty ambivalent about the “annoying puppy,” but it melts our hearts to see Joey cuddle up to Minou on the couch.
We did not have high expectations of Joey since she is a rescue and we do not know her background, so we were shocked that her DNA test identified her as a purebred lab. We sent Joey to training to build her confidence and gauge her interest in bird hunting, and she blew the expectations of the trainer out of the water! Although she remains very wary of other people and has extreme kennel/confinement anxiety, Joey is now confident with other dogs, is very cuddly with people who gain her trust, and is working on channeling her kennel anxiety into safer in-kennel activities (like shredding our cardboard for recycling). She is officially a hunting dog and roadtrip buddy who specializes in full-body couch cuddles, and we couldn’t have asked for a better outcome!
