Unless you’ve done it before, it’s impossible to understand just how much a new puppy will change your life. This past January, my family fell in love with Olive, a nine-week-old lab mix rescued by Pets & Pals Animal Shelter in Lathrop, CA. Her mother is a purebred Labrador Retriever. All we know about her father is that he’s big and he jumped a high fence. Judging by her size at nine weeks old, the vet estimated that Olive might grow to 80 or even 100 pounds. We hadn’t planned on getting a big dog, but we couldn’t resist that brown-orange bundle with paws the size of pie plates. Read more