With an empty nest approaching, Historic Brookhaven residents Anne and Mike Marino decided in 2018 it was finally time to get another dog following the death two years prior of their beloved Golden Retriever Chester. “It took two years for us to even imagine getting another dog because we thought no dog could ever measure up to him,” Anne says. Their youngest child William was finishing his junior year of high school and Anne knew the time was right.

 

The Marinos wanted another Golden but Chester’s breeder, Pekay Golden Retrievers in Dahlonega, didn’t have an available litter. They found Derby at Liberty LionsWatch, a small breeder near Charlotte, North Carolina, and brought him back to their Brookgate Way home.

 

Anne had time to devote to a puppy and Derby became her focus. “He follows me everywhere,” she notes.

 

Now six years later, you might run into the two walking near their home. Derby doesn’t usually walk far. “You may have seen him rolling around in yards -- especially if they are wet with dew or a recent rain,” Anne says. “It is a delay tactic, but it always makes me and passing cars smile.”

 

Derby likes to have his leash in his mouth when the two walk, making it look like the pup is walking his master, Anne jokes. In fact, Derby almost always has to have something in his mouth; if not the leash on a walk, it’s the corner of his bed when he is sleeping or a tennis ball or two most other times. “He is like a baby who never gave up his pacifier,” Anne says.

 

While the Marino children (Mitchell, Kate, and William) are all grown and living elsewhere, Anne says they always ask for photos of Derby in family texts. “I’m convinced they visit partially just to see Derby,” she notes. The family jokes they should have named Derby “handsome” because they call him that so often.

 

The 85-pound Golden has one trick: to take his big bed up and down the stairs. He likes pup cups from Dunkin, which are cups of whipped cream. Derby discovered the treat when Mike took him along one morning on a coffee run. “Derby was in heaven,” Anne says. “Now every morning, Derby jumps on the bed and whines until Mike agrees to the trip to Dunkin.

 

“Did we mention he is spoiled rotten?,” she says. “But we surely do love him.”