Welcome to California Golden's

Sasha our Gorgeous Golden Retriever

Sasha's Life Story ~ It's all about Swimming and Car Rides

Sasha as a Pup- Diver Dog

Sasha at 2/12 years

Sasha Summer 2008

About Sasha

Sasha arrived in a cardboard box one day at the dental office I once worked in Concord CA. She was just 6 weeks old and cute as only a puppy can be. My employer, Dr. Sandhu knew I was distressed over the fact that our 9-year-old Golden Retriever "Brea", had been diagnosed with Leukemia and did not have long to live. Dr. Sandhu knew I would not do well without a dog in my life. Thus, he bought Sasha for me and my husband Mark as an act of kindness and compassion.

Initially I did not know Sasha was a gift from me. At first my husband and I did not know how to feel when we learned she was a gift for us.We accepted her as a new addition to the family. Brea also did not know what was up with this little dog. Nevertheless, they soon packed and slept together.Ssha was initially just called "little dog". She followed Brea everywhere and would nestle next to her.

One of Brea’s jobs was to fetch the morning newspaper. The next three mornings "little dog" would follow Brea out to the drive way and assist - escort Brea back to the house with the newspaper. On day four, Brea woke us up at 3:00 am. Unfortunately, it was obvious she took a turn for the worse. She died in my arms about 20 – 30 minutes later. At about 7:00 am my husband took little dog out with him to get the paper. He managed to capture the last part of her walk back to the house carrying the paper. See: The video on the right. Brea taught her well.

In the ensuing months she comforted both of us as we grieved over the loss of our Brea Girl. We finally named little dog, "Sasha" – it should have been sassy Sasha. She was her own dog as she developed her personality. She also bonded with Beau who was our friends and neighbors male Golden Retriever. Beau was also distraught over the loss of Brea and did not understand what happened. He picked up the slack and mentored Sasha in her puppy youth.

As you can see in the top banner, Sasha proved to be fearless and had Beau pinned down for the count in this photo. As she grew and matured, Sasha soon learned to swim. Now we can’t keep her out of the water. She is like half dog, half fish. She swims regularly off our dock in the Delta and takes trips to the Monterey coastline during the summer. When we take trips to the coast and are within about two miles of the ocean; Sasha starts to whimper in anticipation of dog surfing in the ocean. She loves to ride the waves more than anything else.

Her very nature is to play and make others smile. We hope that by sharing her story and photo’s, this site has made you smile.