A dog named Nacho just made a cross-country trip to the Keys, and found instant paradise
Nacho is an 18-monthold golden retriever from Idaho. But it didn’t take long for him to discover a tropical paradise.
Just after a cross-country road trip on Sunday, Nacho found out what life is like in the Florida Keys. He walked onto the back dock of his new family’s home in Sugarloaf Key, surveyed the scene — and Nacho took a dip, plunging into the saltwater.
He started taking a lap but quickly returned to his owners, Jen Golbeck and Ingo Burghardt. They lured him back to land by offering a ball.
“On his own without coaxing,” said Golbeck,
45. “It shows he’s just a confident dog. He wasn’t worried we were going to let something happen.
He’d been here for two hours at that time.”
Nacho is curious, wellbehaved, playful, goofy — and into his toys, his owners report.
“Definitely ball-obsessed,” Golbeck said.
When Nacho arrived in the Keys, it took about five minutes to get him out of the car. But once he exited, he was trotting around the yard like he owned it.
The Idaho animal rescuer who put the Nacho operation in action, after taking him in earlier this month, followed his road trip every step of the way.
“I screamed out loud: ‘He made it!’ said Tine Welch, founder of the Herd House, when she saw he was in the
Keys. “We put full trust in strangers and hoped their hearts were as big as ours, and they were. I just started sobbing. Happy tears. Sad tears.”
Nacho is the newest, and youngest, member of the Keys couple’s pack, called the Golden Ratio. Nacho joins Venkman, 7, Hopper, 8, Guacamole, 5, Remoulade, 6, and Chief Brody, 12. Golbeck can tell the goldens apart, but Burghardt admitted he sometimes has to check.
The dogs are happy now, but some of them have sad histories.
Remoulade came with a scar around his neck from being chained up for six years. He is also missing fur and never visited a vet. On Sunday, he was bopping around his home with the pack, showing off a beautiful coat. Another dog years back hid in a guest bedroom for a month after arrival. Hopper lost a leg from having had cancer, but today runs about as if she has all four. (She was named before losing the limb.)
“You see them transform after a couple months from sometimes these really terrified, anxious, sick dogs into happy Keys dogs playing in the water,” Golbeck said.
Golbeck understands that many people can’t afford to care for their pets and is grateful they can step in for so many dogs. They’ve had a dog who required about $30,000 a year in surgery. That was Voodoo, 5, who had epilepsy and died a few weeks ago. He had seizures in clusters and required trips to Miami for treatment and would stay in intensive care.
“We’re very fortunate right now that we can afford to take care of these dogs,” she said. “For the vast majority of my life, I was just barely getting by on every check. I understand being broke.”
These dogs have much more than a bowl of kibble: They have their own calendar, a line of merchandise and a Wiki page. They even have a podcast. Golbeck and Burghardt host the Golden Ratio, a witty review of Keys stories and dogs.
Golbeck, a computer scientist who teaches at the University of Maryland, is working on a book, “The Purest Bond,” about the science of the people who bond with their dogs.
The couple started the Golden Ratio Foundation, a nonprofit dedicated to improving the lives of golden retrievers and their friends. They have a devoted social media following of more than 800,000, including about 153,000 on Twitter, which helped save Nacho.
People on the social platform took up a “Save Nacho” movement that had followers cheering on the dog and his volunteer friends as they hit the highways. Nacho was trending by Sunday night, after news of his arrival and video of his impromptu swim were posted.
In Idaho, Nacho — whose original name was Tony — had been given up by his owner, who couldn’t
afford the vet bills linked to the dog’s severe allergies, treated in part by prescribed food and shots. He also may have a knee injury that could require surgery. Nacho was first taken in by Welch at the Herd House, an animal sanctuary, rescue and hospice in Southeast Idaho. Welch already had three fosters and five special needs dogs of her own.
“I am over the limit,” she said, and immediately began searching for his permanent home. She went to Twitter and within seconds, the Golden Ratio was tagged. All tweets led to Goldbeck and Burghardt, who were ready to add him to the pack. They christened him Nacho.
The couple and the Herd House stayed on Twitter to recruit volunteers, who chauffeured Nacho in shifts about 2,739 miles from Pocatello, Idaho, to Sugarloaf Key. Other people gave
Nacho places to stay along his journey. Within 48 hours of Welch’s initial post, the entire volunteer team was in place.
“It all came together like magic,” Welch said Monday.
People who lived in Denver drove to Salt Lake City to pick up Nacho, stayed
overnight, and then drove back to Denver, Golbeck said. So far, none of Nacho’s drivers or hosts have asked or accepted compensation. Everyone got an email from the couple offering to pay expenses.
“We offered to pay gas money,” Golbeck said.
“No one has sent me an email.”
Since 2016, between their dogs and fosters, the couple have had about 30 dogs through their home. There’s been grief as well.
“There have been times when we’ve lost two within a week or two of each other,” Golbeck said. “It just breaks part of you.”
She just can’t turn away when she sees a dog who needs a loving home.
“I can’t say no,” Golbeck said, taking stock of the cost, emotional toll and energy to care for a pack of golden retrievers. “It’s a very joyful place to be.”
‘‘ WE PUT FULL TRUST IN STRANGERS AND HOPED THEIR HEARTS WERE AS BIG AS OURS, AND THEY WERE.
Tine Welch, founder of the Herd House in Idaho