Mole Patrol

January 1, 2026

It’s been a few weeks now that Koda, our Golden K Hunter, has been on self-assigned mole patrol. We’ve lived on our current property in the Sierra Nevada Foothills for many years and have never had moles. Until now….

The landscape around our property is mostly natural and reflects the beauty of the foothills we live in. This past spring we decided just a little bit of lawn would be nice so I prepared a small area for planting. I tilled the hard dirt and clay, I added soil amendments, and laid sod down. The great thing about sod is that there is instant gratification. It looked great. Job well done! Right? Not so much….

Within a few days we noticed that The Girls were digging in the sod. (sigh) We also noticed molehills in and around the sod. (argh!) After several days the sod was gone and so was the mole. Unfortunately The Girls had dug up most of the sod. But on the plus side they had eradicated the moles. Or so we thought.. Shortly after we began noticing molehills all over the large fenced area where The Girls spend most of their time.

Enter Koda The Hunter

Koda has a strong prey drive. Over the years she has caught and injured various critters most notably Stellar Jay fledglings and squirrels. Sometime she catches them and kills them. And then of course she throws her body down and rolls all over them with a devious grin on her snout. Much to Kloe’s chagrin Koda has not killed any cats. Kloe hates, hates, hates, cats!

So back to the moles….

Koda’s dedication is admirable!

Koda spends a majority of her day laying besides the newest molehill (or the one her nose takes her to) with a fixed stare occasionally digging and then back to prolonged stares at the the hole waiting for a mole to emerge which of course never happens.

Koda has great recall. She can be most places inside the house or out and around the property and if I call she comes running to me. On a recent night, well after the sun had gone down, she was still on patrol. I could barely see her figure in the dark and I called to her. Nothing. “Koda, here! Koda, come!” Nothing. I had to bribe her with a high value treat and she finally relented and came in. First thing next morning she was back on patrol.

And so it goes these days with Koda. I’m not sure when or how this will end. Our property is way too big to eradicate moles without a major effort. Any type of poison is obviously out of the question as The Girls share the ground (above) with the moles (below).

I guess this one’s on Koda, The Golden K Hunter, to solve and resolve.

Memorial Day Weekend Nine

May 28, 2023

Memorial Day Weekend has always been a favorite weekend of mine for many reasons. The northern California weather is finally warm on a daily basis, baseball is in full stride with teams beginning to emerge as either contenders or losers, and it’s the unofficial beginning of Summer. But for the past nine years what has made it very special is it’s the weekend that Kali flew into my heart from Taiwan. Nine years ago.

Long time followers of The Golden Kali Blog know the story and history of how this special dog changed my life. How she flew from Taiwan with 23 other Golden Retrievers arriving at SFO via China Airlines flight 004 on Saturday evening, May 24th 2014. Those who don’t can read how it started here.

~~I still recall~~ I can still feel the excitement I had leading up this day when Kali would join our family. After five years without a dog in our family I knew we prepared to welcome Kali into our lives and devote the time, energy, and love to make sure she was happy. What I was not prepared for was the almost immediate and powerful bond that developed between Kali and I.

With any rescue, families should be prepared for an adjustment period of weeks or even months. Given Kali was coming from half way around the world we expected it would take her some time to acclimate to her new environment. It didn’t. It’s funny to think back on it now but at the time I wasn’t sure if Kali would respect the house and our belongings. Would she chew on the furniture? Would she try to steal our food? Was she really house broken? Not knowing any of this before she arrived I had decided that over the long weekend I would spend the first few days mostly outside with Kali as she adjusted. So Sunday morning, her first in America, we headed outside. Kali explored and I began this blog.

That was Sunday of Memorial Day weekend nine years ago. Today, on this Sunday of Memorial Day weekend, I am doing the same thing as I was doing nine years ago. Sitting outside with my laptop writing a post about Kali. So in some ways things are much the same and in other ways they are so much different.

For one Kali is not longer with me at my feet as I write. Kali crossed over the bridge January 1, 2022. This is the second Memorial Day weekend without her. But this remains our special holiday. Time and space will never take that away from us.

If not for Kali I may never have experienced first hand the bond that is possible between man and a dog. My friend Dee tells me that Kali was my Heart Dog. That special dog that no matter who follows him or her, and no matter how much you may love those that follow, they will never replace one’s Heart Dog. Dee is right! Kali is forever my Heart Dog.

If not for Kali there would not have been a Kloe and not a Koda. Kali was Sissie Mama to our two younger girls. An unassuming and subtle alpha, Kali was a gentle and benevolent leader to whom Kloe -especially Kloe- looked up to. Kali gave my wife Holly the courage and motivation to take on a pup (Kloe) as were preparing a move to the mountains (yep on Memorial Day weekend) in 2016. Holly did the heavy lifting with Kloe’s development and training and they have a special bond. Kloe is “Holly’s dog”. As Kali aged I could not bear the thought of her passing and leaving Kloe without a sibling. Enter Koda in 2018. There’s always room for one more dog!

And without Kali there probably not have been a move to the mountains. Kali changed our lives, our thinking, and our priorities. Our life in Suburbia had been great. We raised our family in the East Bay of San Francisco and had a great life. Now, as empty nesters, our vision for our home had changed. Kali was at the center of that vision and gave us the inspiration to make a move. Heck, if she could travel from Taiwan to America and thrive we could certainly do the same in the mountains. It had always been a vision of mine to live in the mountains and Kali gave me that push!

So as I close I offer respect and a nod to the men and women who served and later died in, or because of, military service and for whom this Memorial Day holiday honors. But this weekend will also always be a time that I recall Kali’s arrival and how she changed our lives.

Kali remains omnipresent at The Golden K.

Kali – The Golden K Anchor

February 12, 2023

Kali crossed the bridge over a year ago and there is not a day that ends where I haven’t thought about her at least once. I find myself day dreaming about her. At night she is often in my dreams. Her name comes off my lips at times when I am speaking to one of her sissies. Sometimes I call out to her for no reason in particular other than to beckon her sweet spirit. And I will speak softly to her when I see a picture of her on my computer or in a photo frame.

I miss her desperately. Not in a deliberating way, or even in a sad way. But in a way that stops me in my tracks and takes my breath away as I realize what an incredible relationship we had and what a very special dog Kali was. Her history is storied having been rescued in Taiwan and flying across the world into our arms in the SF Bay Area. Two years later we moved to the Sierra Nevada Foothills and she was an instant local. Nothing ever phased her. She adapted within minutes to any new environment or situation. And like a true Golden she loved all people almost as much as she loved food. 🙂

Recently a picture came up in my Facebook Memories. A photo from four years ago. In the photo Kali, Kloe, Koda, and Holly were all lying on the floor sleeping. Everyone was tired from a day of playing off and on in the snow. What struck me about this photo was that as they slept on the floor Kloe, Koda, and Holly each had their heads resting against Kali. She was our anchor. She was our energy. She was our heartbeat. Kali was and remains the pulse of The Golden K!

Kali, anchoring a power nap after a day in the snow. February 5, 2019

The Golden K

April 14, 2021

The Golden K, the history, and how Kali brought us to this place.

Long time followers of Golden Kali may remember that Kali was a rescue from Taiwan. I remember vividly sitting with her in the back yard of our home in Livermore the morning after we picked her up from the airport in San Francisco. Kali assimilated so quickly into her new environment. It had been less than 24 hours and here she was sitting calmly and seemingly very content at my feet as I started this blog. That was almost seven years ago.

The name for the blog was an easy pick. It would be about Kali’s new life in America. She is a Golden Retriever. So as I set up the WordPress site my fingers quickly, and without hesitation, typed Golden Kali into the title field for the site.

At the time I had no idea Kali would be such a big influence on our lives and our future.

A few weeks later Holly, Kali, and I were sitting in the same spot of our yard enjoying a nice Summer evening. Holly told me she wanted to start camping again. She said wouldn’t it be great, now as mostly empty nesters, to get away just the three of us – Holly, Kali, and I – and take some road trips. I agreed and said that was not going to do tent camping again; my back was too old for that. So we decided to start looking for small trailers we could pull behind our SUV.

Fast forward a couple of months and we take a visit to our friends vacation home at Pine Mountain Lake in Groveland, CA. It was a nice weekend, Kali’s first road trip, and she did just fine. Holly and I were like first time parents and we packed everything under the sun that we thought Kali would need. Her crate, food, treats, toys, blankets, leashes, and I’m sure items I am now forgetting. Of course Kali needed none of it including the crate. All she needed was to be with us.

A few weeks later, again sitting in the yard, Holly says to me, “I don’t want a camper anymore”. I asked her why. She said she wanted a vacation home! OK….. I can switch gears pretty quickly. Now instead of researching camper options I start looking at properties in the Sierra Nevada Foothills. A home comes up that I instantly fall in love with. I showed Holly and said, “Look, I found our our home. Not a vacation home but a full time home”. Holly laughed and said she wasn’t moving but she wouldn’t mind taking a road trip to see the home. Cutting to the chase, and after looking at more homes in Tuolumne County over the next couple of months, we closed escrow on that very home I saw online that evening in the back yard. One of the many selling points of the home was it was five acres and had plenty of room for Kali to roam and also be safe with various fences and gates that allowed us to give her a lot of room or just a little depending on circumstances. This was the end of 2015 and we prepared to move.

My romantic vision of living in the mountains included having a name for our home and surrounding property. This was important to me.

Like with this blog it didn’t take long for me to realize that the name of our new home would be The Golden K in honor of my beautiful Kali.

And the “K’s” just kept on coming…. A few weeks before we moved we adopted a new 9 week old Golden Retriever puppy and named her Kloe. It had to be a K name, right? And then a couple of years later we adopted another Golden Retriever, this time a 4 month old. We named her Koda. It is safe to say that the Golden K is full of beautiful Golden K’s! And Kali started it all!

Five years in Taiwan, two years in Livermore, and five years (and counting) in Tuolumne, my Golden Kali has been on a great journey and I’ve been lucky enough to have spent the last seven years with her. I don’t think it’s a stretch to say that if not for Kali, there would not be a Golden K, a Kloe, or a Koda. How can one dog have so much influence over the lives of her humans? How can one dog can bring so much joy and happiness into the lives of two people who were otherwise already very happy with their lives?

I guess when that one dog is my Golden Kali it’s as natural as taking that 12 hour flight from Taiwan and straight into my heart.

**Kali on move in day five years ago at The Golden K**

Time Moves Faster For Kali

February 1, 2021

The canine stages from puppyhood to adolescent to adult and finally senior is very much like us humans. I’m sure there is a more scientific and accurate manner in which to define stages of life for both canine and humans. And there are probably more than four stages. But this not a scientific blog. This is a blog about Kali, her sisters, and our collective life in the mountains. So I’m gonna stick with these four stages that serve my purposes in this post.

As a father I’ve watched all three of my children through the first three stages; baby/toddler, adolescence, and now adulthood. I observed my mother go through the last two stages: adult to senior. When she was in the senior stage she initially was quite healthy. She had her physical and mental facilities intact and was capable of caring for herself. Then, over time, her health declined and she began requiring increased help to get around. She began losing her cognitive ability. Eventually she was diagnosed with and ended up dying from dementia.

Hang in there. I’m getting to the part about dogs now… 🙂

What stage are my girls in? Koda at two and half is my adolescent and Kloe at almost five is my adult. Kali at almost 12 is my senior. But wait a second. When Kali joined the pack seven years ago she was an adult. And so was I. I felt as though we were contemporaries. My best friend was the same age as me and we’d share a long life and grow old together. But now Kali is a senior and I’m still an adult (although my wife might argue otherwise at times…). The average life expectancy for humans in the United States is 78 years. The average life expectancy for a Golden Retriever is around 12 years. Time moves faster for Kali and at times it makes me sad.

I observe similar characteristics in Kali that I saw in my mom as her health was declining during the final stages of her life. At first walking with help, then with a walker, and eventually a wheel chair. Kali has hip dysplasia. It is increasingly hard for her to get up or lay down, she walks very slow and wobbly. Under certain circumstances I have to pick her up to get her where she needs to be. Other than for meals my mom spent her day in her chair looking at the TV and out the window. Kali spends the majority of her day sleeping and watching the world go by around her. Over time my mom forgot things, repeated herself, and eventually had limited awareness of where she was. She eventually stopped talking, only nodding her head in response to questions. Kali at times is disoriented and seems confused. She has stopped responding to commands. Her hearing is either very bad or very selective. And her eyes are clouded with cataracts that diminish her vision. My mom lost her appetite and had to be coaxed to eat. Good news here for Kali is that meal time is still her favorite time of the day and she remains very passionate about food!

My mom was 97 when she passed away far exceeding the average life expectancy. At almost 12 Kali is creeping towards the outer edge of life expectancy for Golden Retrievers. In spite of her advanced age Kali still exhibits some of the same behaviors as she did seven years ago as a much younger dog. Like the fixed stare she gives me about 30 minutes before meal time. Like head butting me as I prepare her food. And in spite of her bad legs and poor sight at times she still sits at the gate waiting for me to return home or comes looking for me in the house if I’m in another room. This is heartening and encouraging to me. It reminds me that my Kali is still in so many ways the same dog that came into my life seven years ago as an adult, as my contemporary, and as what turned out to be my best friend.

Time moves faster for Kali. I wish I could slow it down.

Red Girls, Snow, and The Golden K

February 10, 2019

Snow has been falling off and on at The Golden K for a week now. I’m amazed at how alive dogs become in the snow. Impervious to the cold – seemingly energized by it – with the speed of a gazelle and endurance of a marathoner they run, roll, jump and chase only stopping occasionally to catch their breath. And I believe, as they stop and look around, that they realize their world is different for the moment and they appreciates the beautiful playground that Mother Nature has created for them. Then all at once they are off again…

Kloe and Koda – The red girls as I call them – have had a lot fun with snow play this past week. Although The Golden K is located in the Sierra Nevada Foothills we’re just about at the snow line at 3100 feet elevation and don’t receive a lot of snow each year. As inconvenient as it has been this past week in some ways it has also been special. The red girls have taken advantage of the velvety layer of cold white powder sitting on top of what is usually a hard and muddy landscape this time of year.

For the past week the red girls have alternated between this:

Kloe and Koda stopping to catch their breath and appreciate their velvety playground

And this…

Koda” “Dad you’re embarrassing me. I’m not cold and I already shook off the snow.” Kloe: “It makes him feel better. If it was mud we’d both be up in the bath right now.”

Our Traditional First Snow Walk

Earlier in the week we took our traditional first snow walk with the girls to the top of The Golden K. It was a little melancholy for me because as we headed out of the immediate area of the house and headed up the hill Kali was struggling. Kali, now almost ten with bad hips struggled in the deep snow making it too difficult for her to follow along. She tried but as she labored to make gains up the hill to follow me I could see in her eyes that it was too much for her. As much as I wanted her with us and as much as I know she wanted to be by my side I took her back to the house while Holly and the red girls waited at the trail head.

Holly” “If only the red girls were attached to a sled they could power me up the hill… Mush!”

Kali last year on our traditional snow walk to the top of The Golden K

Kali: “My hips are frozen – this feels great!”

And so it goes during winter at The Golden K. Rain follows this snow storm and then more snow, and then more rain. Hopefully we’ll have a few days to dry out in between all of that. I’m convinced the earth is spinning faster with the way time flies by. Before the girls know it they’ll be running on the hard clay ground in sunshine, sitting patiently by the BBQ for a little “sumpin’-sumpin'” and looking for shade to cool down in. But for now we take what Mother Nature has to give and enjoy the beauty of the Golden K all dressed in white.

The red girls running, rolling, jumping and chasing. How great is it to be them!

Christmas Trees At The Golden K

December 17, 2018

This will be our third Christmas at The Golden K., our mountain home in the Sierra Nevada Foothills. When living in suburbia with our now grown children Holly and I bought high priced Christmas Trees, usually Noble Pines, from various lots or drove miles to cut them down ourselves. Later we invested in artificial trees that looked great until the lights started to go out after being wrapped back up and stored for a couple of years.

While packing up Suburbia three years ago we threw out the last artificial tree. When Christmas rolled around several months later, and now living in the mountains we went to a local nursery to see about buying a live tree. While looking at what was available we had a “duh” moment realizing that we have five acres full of trees. Why would we spend money on a Christmas tree when we have hundreds of trees of our own to choose from. Our pine trees are a hundred feet tall and we don’t live in altitude high enough for firs. But we do have a lot of cedars so choosing a small cedar for our Christmas tree each year from our own property has become our new tradition.

While cedars are not ideal for hanging ornaments it hasn’t mattered to us. This new tradition has become important to us as a symbol of our transition out of Suburbia and our new way of life in the mountains.

So today we headed out with the girls and a chain saw in tow to hunt for a tree.

After about 20 minutes of surveying our options we chose a tree on the edge of our property. After giving the tree a sniff and once over the girls approved of our selection. Good thing because it was already cut!

After some trimming of branches and securing the tree stand we were ready to trim the tree.

The girls were not to interested in helping with the trimming and almost immediately went into power nap mode. Kloe woke up briefly to “snoopervise” (thanks for the term Monika!) but it didn’t last too long.

After a couple of hours of trimming the tree was done. The girls seemed to approve as they leaned into to get on their Christmas cheer.

*Editors Note: The girls would have had on their Christmas scarves for this photo but that is just not possible with a six month old puppy who would rip her sister’s scarves to pieces as well as her own…..

Flags, Dogs, and Wine

July 4, 2018

For all our warts I would not want to live anywhere other than this great country of ours, the US of America.

Ray Charles singing “America” in the background, Oaks and Pines swaying to the warm gentle wind, and Baseball coming on shortly. We are truly blessed at the Golden K.

Whether you stand, sit, or lie down for the flag Kloe, Kali, and cousin Ben wish you the best of bests on this Fourth Of July, Two Thousand and Eighteen.

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Long Running Story

October 22, 2017

Kali’s new life in America and the mountains is now a long running story.

As most owners of a rescue pet know it’s the pet that usually rescues us and provides us with a more enriched life. So often it is the pet, in my case Kali, who teaches us new ways to love, re-calibrates our priorities, and shows us that the simplest things in life can also be the most rewarding and heartening.

It’s been three and half years since Kali rescued me. I vividly remember the moment her crate was opened and she was released to us at SFO after a 12 hour flight from Taiwan. The bond was instant and was fortified on the drive home and in the ensuing days and weeks.

So while Kali’s adventure is a long running one she herself rarely runs…. or trots, or gallops. Kali is rarely in a hurry to get anywhere except to her food bowl and even then doesn’t run although she does display a remarkable ability to pirouette, bounce, and hop. A main reason for the lack of speed are her hips which, typical of Goldens, are not in great shape. She has dysplasia in one hip and the other, while not diagnosed, is not much better.

So on the rare occasion Kali does “run” it makes me laugh and smile. It’s not the fact that she’s “running” but that it is so darn cute. Because even when Kali is moving fast (for her) it’s not very graceful. If you saw Kali “run” (note the quote marks around the word run and running in the proceeding sentences when referring to Kali) it would not inspire images of racehorses, jack rabbits, or world class athletes. When Kloe runs it might but not Kali. Kali’s motion when moving fast is as much up and down as it is forward. You might say that she runs with her entire body, head to tail, perhaps to compensate for those wonky hips of hers.

Picture a long wavelength and you will get an idea of how Kali runs; it takes a lot of up and down to move forward just a little bit…

Kali’s “running” motion

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There is a gate that leads out of our patio onto the driveway and surrounding land. This is the gate Kali and I usually leave from to go on our walks or across to my office. For Kali walks translate to treats. My office sometimes translates to a bully stick to chew on or at the least a respite from her sister Kloe’s antics and chance to have dad all to herself. There is also an area nearby my office where raccoons and other critters have made a “deposit” the previous night. Much to my chagrin Kali loves to forage for those deposits…

More often than not when we go out the gate Kali begins running with her up and down and up and down motion. As she “runs” she turns back to me with a smile on her face as if to say, “look at me, I’m running – can you believe it?” Or maybe it’s to say, “C’mon, I’ll show you where all the critters pooped last night.” Whatever it is it makes me smile and laugh out loud as Kali reminds me that the simplest things in life can also be the most rewarding and heartening.

And it’s these moments that I am most grateful to have been rescued by my Golden Kali.

A picture of Kali not running…

Golden Kali

Hurricane Harvey

August 26, 2017

As we sit here in the relative safety of The Golden K we are thinking about the impending impacts of Hurricane Harvey that, as of the writing of this post, will hit shore within the hour. Our thoughts are with Kali’s followers and anyone else who is or will be in harms way.

Prayers, positive vibes, good thoughts, well wishes – however you want to phrase it – we are sending all of them your way.

Its times like this that our country can show it’s greatness, resolve, and unity by helping one another regardless of race, religion, political affiliations, or sexual identity.

Come on people now
Smile on your brother
Everybody get together
And try to love one another right now

-Jesse Colin Young

Kali and Kloe praying for the safety of Gulf Coasters. Let us know how you are.