Featuring sisters Elizabeth Van Oostrum and Christina Strong and their golden companions Koda & Charlie.
Story and images by Jenn Lin © 2024 All Rights Reserved.
I first met Elizabeth and Christina at my golden retriever meetup in October 2023. Two sisters born 15 months apart, they adopted two golden retrievers from the same litter—Koda and Charlie. Here’s what they shared with me when we sat down to chat.
ELIZABETH: “We’re an animal loving family. We grew up with dogs, and Koda is our second golden. It took us two years to get another one because it hurt so bad to lose the last one. It’s like losing a family member…. It was more so my husband Harold who was the driving force to get Koda to start with—he said it was time to get another dog. So it was during COVID and because we knew that more people were gonna be at home, there would be more time for a puppy, and that it would be the best time to adopt. We found a breeder out in Langley and we picked Koda. Two days later, I got a call from the breeder. She said Koda’s brother had been returned and she asked if I wanted to adopt him, but my husband said, ‘No, you’re not having two golden puppies. Not at the same time. Not gonna happen.’ So I said, ‘Okay, I’m gonna call my sister,’ and she got him. There was no hesitation—she was in the car to go get him before I finished saying Koda’s brother is available.”
CHRISTINA: “I love all dogs, but goldens are different. I’ve had several dogs over my life, and I’ve had a special attachment to all of them. Maybe I’m biased, but goldens are just different. Or maybe it’s just me with Charlie. The looks he gives me, his expressions, or how his eyes are always on me and he’s always following me. He has different body movements, barks, and whines… it’s like he’s always communicating with me and telling me something in his own way. Pre-COVID I took a leave of absence from work, and I had been hospitalized, and that’s when I received my diagnosis of CPTSD. So Charlie was a long-wanted and needed addition to my family. My children are adults and are on their own… so I was experiencing empty nest syndrome.”
ELIZABETH: “Bringing Koda and Charlie into our family brought back a lot of happiness that was missing. Dogs are just so full of love and we’re so full of love for having them in our lives. My sister and I have always been very close, and I just think it’s so cool to have the puppies at the same time. The dogs grew up together and we socialize them together all the time. We dog sit for each other, and we have a lot of family time together too. We go to a lot of off-leash parks more so than on-leash, as the dogs love to get out and be in nature. And they definitely act like members of the family. When we go camping and we gather around the campfire, if there’s an empty chair, Koda will climb up and sit in it and does not expect to be asked to move. He thinks it’s his chair. And he’ll bark at you like you’re having a conversation. Some people say that when you have two males dogs from the same litter they can have issues, but Koda and Charlie are like best buds. They’re two peas in a pod.”
CHRISTINA: “As much as the dogs are together all the time, they’re two different personalities. Koda’s very loud and vocal, and Charlie’s more quiet and submissive… much more of a people person. When we’re at the beach, Charlie’s usually greeting all the people rather than the dogs. Instead of chasing birds, he chases the birds’ shadows. He loves to swim and will chase the rock or stick that you throw into the ocean, but more often than not, he’d rather let Koda get it.”
ELIZABETH: “Koda will fully submerge himself to get the rock or stick. But often he’ll walk into the water until it’s deep enough that you just see his head coming out of the ocean water. And he’ll just sit there. The waves will come in and whatever, but he’ll just sit there and bark at you every once in a while…. Both of them take a cookie or a treat very gently, but Koda’s stubborn. Charlie with shake a paw, both paws, no problem. Koda will sit there and stare you down, and he will not, for the life of him, shake a paw. Now, if his paws are on the ground, I might get a little lift from him. But he’s just like, no mom, I’m not gonna shake your paw.”
CHRISTINA: “It was Charlie that taught Koda how to go up and down the stairs.”
ELIZABETH: “Yes, that’s right. The house has a back deck and Charlie had no problem with going down the stairs, and it was Koda that was very nervous about it. You could tell he wanted to, but at first he was very scared and timid. It was Charlie showing him to go up and down the stairs that got him to do it.”
CHRISTINA: “Charlie’s puppy stages were crazy. He was a little pterodactyl. A bit of an expense at times having to replace things like Elizabeth’s prescription sunglasses, my brother-in-law’s cell phone attachment for his motorcycle and some wires in their motorhome, and several pairs of flip-flops… and socks, socks, socks. He’s always got socks in his mouth; he’s always stealing socks. He’s a very curious and gentle soul. He’s always by my side from the time we wake up. He’s my shadow. He loves to be by me and if my hand isn’t touching him or petting him or something, he gives me a little nudge so that he’s touching me in some way. Sometimes it’s his head on my arm… he just loves to be close. It’s a connection for me, and he keeps me calm and feeling safe.”
ELIZABETH: “I think dogs know when you’re happy or sad or if you’re sick even because I just recently had hip replacement and because of that, for two weeks, I didn’t want Koda in the bedroom with me at night. But he was still trying to be with me all the time, waiting patiently outside the bedroom door. Either my sister or Harold would bring him into the bedroom for a visit. Koda was always gentle and excited all at the same time, offering lots of kisses. The first time he was allowed up on the bed, he gently laid beside me and didn’t want to move. He rested his head on my stomach and just stared at me. So I think dogs are very intuitive and make such good companions.”
CHRISTINA: “Charlie can be a goober sometimes though. When he’s laying on his back and his lips fall open and you can see all his teeth, it’s just so silly. Or sometimes his one ear will be flipped back. Or when he gets the zoomies. When he knows I want to leave the house and we’re going somewhere, he loves to play the chase game. Since he follows me everywhere, I have to plan out how I’m going to do things so he doesn’t notice. Getting the leash on him is difficult because he doesn’t wear a collar when he’s indoors. I take his collar off because it’s like when you want to take your bra off at the end of the day—get this heavy thing off my neck! I think he feels the same way. So I only put it on him when we’re going outside or going somewhere. That’s why it can take us a half an hour just to get out of the house.”
ELIZABETH: “The funny thing is that when I met my husband, he had cats. He had dogs as well, but when I met him he had three cats. In North Delta there’s a lot of outdoor animals. And our cats, I don’t know what it is, but they always want to go outside and unfortunately they sometimes don’t make it home. So I said to my husband, ‘We can’t do that anymore. I can’t lose anymore of them.’ One of them, Shredder, just ran away and moved in with the neighbours up the street. We didn’t have her very long and then Koda the puppy comes in, and within six or seven months the cat abandoned us and said, ‘Nope I’m not living with you.’ She does a walk by every once in a while, but we’re just happy that she’s happy.
I think an animal brings a lot of happiness and motivation to people, and a golden retriever is a beautiful breed of dog. They’re good looking, they’re good tempered, and they’re great family dogs. Great companions. Dogs teach you a lot about love and compassion, and sometimes patience as well. It keeps you motivated for walks. For us, dogs are family members. April 12 is their birthday, so they’re easter babies. We celebrate their birthdays and put the party hats on and give them cookies. My family members each have their own dogs, so at one point we had 8 or 9 dogs over here one day. It was crazy—Koda and Charlie would be playing The Floor is Lava, jumping around from couch to couch.”
CHRISTINA: “On Charlie and Koda’s first birthday celebration, we went out to Centennial Beach in Tsawwassen. It was a great date, but as we were leaving I realized I had lost my phone. We looked for it, we posted about it on community pages and everything and couldn’t find it. I was so sad because I had lost all of his baby pictures. He used to be so little that he would fit and sleep inside my slippers! But between Elizabeth and my daughter, we were able to recoup some of them because, of course, I shared most of them!”
CHRISTINA: “Charlie got me through some really difficult times. He’s my emotional support dog. He’s not trained or anything but he just naturally is. For instance, at bedtime, Charlie will come and lick my face. My love for him helped me to get out of bed in the morning, outside for walks, interacting with people at dog parks and trails… he helped me climb out of my shell and back into having a life. He goes with me everywhere I go. We go camping together and like to go beachcombing for hours and hours.
It’s so hard to put into words how much Charlie means to me. I’ve loved all my dogs and I’ve had a connection with all of them. But maybe with Charlie it’s different because he is just mine and it’s just like we just know each other so well. Maybe that’s because I got him during COVID and we didn’t really get out to do much else. But if I’m in the shower, he’s laying outside the shower door. If I’m in the kitchen, he’s definitely by my side. If I’m putting the groceries away, he’s on the couch staring at me. And if we’re outside on the patio just watching birds he’ll just come lay beside me. When I’m at work is the only time we’re not together. And he’s my screensaver. So sometimes I’ll just sit and look at him while I’m at work because I miss him.”
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