Do we have the same husband?
My dog story. 5 years ago I was looking for a dog. It was time. I very specifically wanted a special needs dog but knew my limitations on how sever the needs could be. I also needed a dog that did not have agression issues.
So I searched and seached. Shelters, rescue groups, etc. I emailed about a deaf dog about 60 miles from me, filed out all the paper work, set up the meeting, yada, yada. Just before the meeting the foster mom called and said she decided to keep the dog. Same thing happened 3 more times with different dogs who were in foster care. One of which the process got all the way to me taking the dog for a weekend to be sure. I even took off work to go to vet visits to learn how to deal with this particular dogs leg problem.
Finally after jumping through all the hoops and dancing to all the tunes and still no dog I said forget it.
3 days later my cell phone rings. DH is on the other end asking me where I am. I said on my way home why? His only response is hurry up, I have a surprise for you. He hung up. Can you believe that? Just tells me he has a surprise and hangs up the phone.
I arrive home, rush in the house and say, "Wheres my surprise". He just sits there, nothing. So I do the hand on the hip thing, with the glare (you know the one). He grins and nods his head towards the fire place. I turn around and low and behold there lays a beautiful chocolate lab just looking at me.
After I complete the snoopy dance of joy, pet the dog, and ramble on for a few minutes. I finally ask, where did this dog come from.
Apparently it had been in my neighbors shed for a few days. It had been raining solid for a week. Everytime their dog went out it would stand at the shed door and bark like crazy. Finally it quit raining enough for them to go see what was going on. They found this dog just laying there.
So I got my dog, it was just sent to me. No one responded to any of the found dog flyers and no one posted any lost dog ads.
5 years later we are still a perfect match.
Moral of the story. Be patient.
BUT if you are looking for a smaller version of a lab with a darker coat colour (and perhaps more interesting coat colour) you *might* consider looking at F1 MINI labradoodles. You can get *very* labby looking F1s that have hardly *any* poodle traits. We have an F1 MINI labradoodle, he's mum's stud dog and he topped out at 25lbs, is short and compact and eats hardly anything at all (and we feed Royal Canin, IMO you're better off buying a good quality food that you won't have to feed a lot of, like Orijen or Royal Canin). 
How uncouth of me. Guess I've seen far too many idiot husbands.
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