A man and his dog create golden memories 

Have you seen that insurance commercial that features a retired pediatrician who explored the west with his grandsons who were triplets? They make a point of how unique he is. Well, at least he knew his grandsons before he started hauling them across the country.

That wasn’t the case with Dan Mohr and his dog. Mohr had always wanted to explore the west with his dog. However, his golden retriever was thirteen years old and in no shape for a six week road trip. Two months before his planned departure, Mohr contacted Gwinnett Animal Shelter in hopes of adopting a golden to share his adventures. 

“I didn’t realize it was such a long process,” the Lilburn resident said. “Goldens are grabbed up fast by rescue groups.”

After weeks of searching, he finally made contact with Carol Swenson from Adopt A Golden Atlanta the day before his planned departure. She had rescued a malnourished stray. 

“He had cuts on his face, fleas and scabs the size of a nickel. I didn’t believe a dog could get fleas that bad,” Mohr said.

But this was it. This nameless stray was the only golden in the south available for adoption.

When they finally met, Mohr was greeted with good news and bad news. The good news was that the dog, who he named Dexter, had been in a cage for three weeks and was eager to get moving. The bad news was that Dexter got car sick.

Well, he’d just have to get over it, which he did after only a couple of days in the RV.

The next thing Dexter learned was to respond to his new name.

“Goldens are among the smartest dogs and have a vocabulary of 300-500 words,” Mohr said. “I was looking forward to teaching him new words as we traveled.”

Dexter’s vocabulary building began in Yellowstone Park where he learned the word “buffalo.” 

“He wouldn’t leave,” Mohr said. “After that, if I just said ‘buffalo’ he’d perk up.”

As this man and his dog trekked along in Glacier National Park, they met up with a Native American hiker.

“He had a nice camera and he said he was doing a book on bears and asked if I wanted to walk along with him,” Mohr said.

As it turned out, this fellow traveler was Serle Chapman, a renowned nature writer who’s authored 15 books about bears. From this man who took him on trails off-limits to most tourists, Dexter learned his second word, “bear.”

Dexter learned “snow” as he lay down and made snow angels and “bird” as he chased seagulls on the Pacific coast. He learned “horse’ when a wild horse boldly walked up to the RV and nuzzled him nose to nose.

I don’t have enough words to document the expansion of Dexter’s vocabulary as he traveled across the country with Mohr, but you know what they say about a picture being worth a thousand words. You can see the west according to Dexter at picasaweb.google.com/danmohr.rv. You can also see that some of his adventures are beyond words.

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