I have been around Labradors  since I was 17 years old,  I had a yellow lab- Booberry and a black lab-Count Chocula. 

As I grew older, I knew I wanted another Labrador.  They are such fun loving and faithful dogs.  So off we went to the pound to look for our new dog.

After many months of looking through a variety of shelters and pounds, we saw this cute little black Labrador mix sitting in a corner looking all alone. We stood there for awhile and walked around the rest of the pound, we went back to the cage and the puppy was wagging the tail, and we both knew this was the one. We found our new baby and named her Heidi.  Heidi was my world. We did everything together- walking, hiking, playing in the park, she ran beside me on my bike, she loved going to the lake and camping. We would take our boat to the  lake and go to a portion far away from others and park it, have a grand day of sitting on the edge with a blanket, having a  picnic, swimming, playing frisbee or catch and lots of cuddles.   If I snuck into the water- and she could not see me- she would have a fit!  If I ducked under the water- she would come leaping to "rescue" me.  I could never get past my shoulder when wading, as she would grab my swim suit and pull me to shore- every single time. 

Heidi knew I was afraid of deep water. One afternoon we were boating and pulling a tube behind us.  I was the person on the tube.  When she heard me yelling and laughing- that girl followed us around 1/4 of the lake on shore chasing the boat and trying to get to me.  She needed to save momma!  

Heidi's knee joint suddenly went bad and she had to have surgery.  I slept with her on the floor for 3 months, hauled her outside to poddy, rocked her endlessly through her pain. Taught her how to walk again. Shortly before Heidi turned eight; we went to go upstairs to go to bed. She slept next to me every night. She wouldn't get up on the bed, that was a bad signal and highly unusual.  I bent down to pick her up and she was ice cold. A couple of hours later she was worse, I rushed her to the vet. They admitted her and started IV's on her.

The vet was worried that her liver was having issues and the IV would help that. She stayed there overnight. He called me the next morning and suggested I get her to a specialist immediately. I called one and took her in. The vet was very nice and took her in for some tests and x-rays. He brought her back and told us he suspected liver failure or cancer. 3 months before that - she was perfectly healthy.  I sat on that vet room floor for over an hour, telling her how much I loved her, needed her and things were going to be alright. The vet told me he would call during surgery to let me know what they were seeing, Hours later that call came and I said good bye to my best friend. That was a very difficult day.

8 months later, I saw a gal with yellow Labradors on Facebook.  I called and asked if I could come visit them. I told the gal my story. I told her I could never do a rescue puppy again. I needed a dog with healthy history in the lineage and proper testing done.  I could not go through the pain I had gone through before. 

We visited practically every day.  This is how our Ginger Bella became the first of our AKC registered Labrador Retrievers. 

Ginger is perfect. She was a happy fun loving girl, full of energy and spunk!  I had so many people ask me where I got her, do I know if there are any available?Trainers, families, military veterans,  people with PSTD, special needs, hunters, so many were all asking about Ginger and if I knew where they could get one like her. 

I called my friend from where I had gotten Ginger from and she promised she would walk me through the process from beginning to end.  This is how I became a breeder.