Hillie"s Story
By Hilary Walker
By the time we moved into a house and were ready for our new dog, we couldn"t find her. Golden retrievers are a dime a dozen in the US and the UK, but they were rare in Germany, where we lived in 1989.
We finally tracked down a breeder in Hanover. We lived near Frankfurt and had to fly up there to visit the eight week old litter of chubby puppies, dutifully reading the book Choosing your First Dog on the plane.
That volume warns the would-be buyer not to go for a specimen just because it"s the runt or licks your face. My husband lifted up a cute little girl-puppy who licked his face. The rest is history.
My mother used to call me Hillie when I was growing up. I hated the name, so Glen, my husband, decided to call our new acquisition Hillie. He felt it w
